


Out of Time

by Nightfoot



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Time Travel, significantly more Yuri & Flynn friendship than Flynn/Estelle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-07-18
Packaged: 2018-04-03 11:18:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 56,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4099084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightfoot/pseuds/Nightfoot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he was eight years old, Yuri Lowell vanished and was never seen again.  Now an adult and the commandant, Flynn has long moved on from his childhood grief... that is, until an eight year old boy claiming to be Yuri Lowell reappears in his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by a very short piece by Suguelya about them playing hide and seek. And then, it ran away from me. Enjoy!

A boom echoed through the lower quarter, but Yuri went right back to talking as soon as it faded. "So anyway, this monster was basically the size of a house."

"No way." Flynn sprawled in the weeds in the empty lot. It was too hot to bring his limbs closer to his body, even with the scant shade provided by their fort. "No monster can be  _that_  big."

"Can too! The knight said he saw it in the forest north of here but none of his brigade were willing to go after it."

"My dad never saw anything like that."

"I bet they're really rare so of course he wouldn't of."

"Hm…. maybe." It was too hot to argue. The summer sun locked Zaphias in a scorching oven that left Flynn melting into the grass. There was no relief to be found at home, where the thin wooden walls left them cold in the winter and broiling in the summer, and they could only splash in the fountain for so long before someone yelled at them for playing in the drinking water. As for the river, well, it had a high enough percentage of mud and filth the rest of the year when the heat wasn't evaporating all the water it had left. This had to be the pinnacle of the summer, though. There was no way it could get hotter than this.

Another boom thundered through the lower quarter. The heat made it especially loud, since so few people were on the streets making noise.

Yuri sat up on his elbow. "What do you think the mages are up to?"

"A blastia that can change the weather," Flynn said hopefully. He was certain that in all his nine years, it had never been this hot. Mom said he just didn't remember previous summers well, but Flynn was stubbornly sure this was the worst.

"Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be going well with all those booms."

No one knew for sure what the mages were up to. All anyone had been told was that a bunch of researchers from Aspio were performing highly delicate tests and needed direct supervision from the Knighthood. They'd been given a building to experiment in, which was in the lower quarter because - according to Hanks - if it blew up down here, who cared?

"Maybe the booms are on purpose. Maybe they're making like a big cannon or something for Alexei."

"That would be so cool." Yuri whistled. He'd learned to do that only this summer and liked to find any excuse to do so. Considering Flynn couldn't seem to get the hang of it, rubbing it in Flynn's face was a valid excuse at any time. "We should check it out."

"They won't let us in. It's private." There were even knights on duty guarding the entrance. Maybe it really was a weapon for Alexei and that's why he was so concerned about secrecy.

"So we should  _sneak_  in."

"We'd get in trouble!"

"You're so lame."

"Am not."

"Are too." Yuri got to his knees and crawled across the fort. He pounced on Flynn, pinning his shoulders to the dry ground. "We should go!"

"Ugh, Yuri get off. It's too hot to fight."

Yuri glared at him for a moment, and then heaved a sigh and flopped to the ground next to him. "What do you want to do then? We can't just lie here forever."

"I dunno." All the things they'd usually like to do involved physical activity and all Flynn's energy was leaking out with his sweat. They needed to play a game where they could have fun but also just sit quietly in the shade thinking cool thoughts. "How 'bout hide and seek?"

"That's boring."

"You just say that because I'm better at it than you."

"Nu-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"I'm way better."

"I  _always_  find you. You always hide in the same spots."

"I do not!"

"Do too!" Flynn crossed his arms and smirked. "And then you try to find me but you suck at it." Then he moved his arms off his chest when that became unbearable.

Yuri clambered to his feet. "Ok, let's play then. I'll hide first. I'll hide in a really smart place this time."

"Fine." Flynn dragged himself upright and scooted to lean against the brick wall enclosing the empty lot. He rubbed sweat from his forehead and said, "I'll start counting. Go hide." He closed his eyes, feeling the heat sear into his eyelids. "One… two… three…." Yuri's foot steps darted away from the lot.

Years from now, Flynn would still think about that sound. The crunch of dying weeds and the scuff of dry dirt as Yuri ran out of the lot and out of Flynn's life.

Flynn looked for him, of course. After he reached one-hundred, he hopped up and strolled out of the lot to begin the hunt. He looked in all the usual spots, but true to his word, Yuri had hidden really well this time. He wasn't in the tree by the river or in the barrel by the blacksmith. Flynn searched under stalls in the market and under piles of debris in alleys. After an age, he even looked inside buildings, even though they'd long agreed those were off limits.

Flynn searched for hours. By the end he didn't even want to play anymore and shouted Yuri's name through the neighbourhood. The sun finally going down brought relief from the heat but spiked his worry. When his mom came home from work, she joined him in the search with a worried look. As the night grew darker, more residents of the lower quarter took to the streets to help with the hunt. Yuri's name rang through the neighbourhood as they called for him. Late at night, Flynn's mom insisted he go to bed. Yuri would show up tomorrow, she assured him. Everything would be all right.

Yuri didn't show up the next day, though. Or the day after that. On the third day, Flynn spotted Hanks and some of the men standing by the edge of the river with grim faces and long poles, searching the riverbed for something. On the fourth day, he kept seeing grown-ups talking in hushed voices and clamming up when he drew near. On the fifth day, people stopped reassuring him that his friend would show up any day now.

For a few weeks that summer, Yuri Lowell dominated the gossip throughout the lower quarter. People who hadn't even known him had their interests piqued by the bizarreness of the disappearance. But as the weeks trudged on through the heat wave, not a single clue turned up to fuel the mystery. Interest waned. The search dwindled off. People had their own lives to worry about.

By the time the leaves changed, Yuri Lowell had become little more than a tragic curiosity to lower quarter. One day, a boy had run off to hide and he was never found again.


	2. Thirteen Years Later

Commandant Flynn Scifo strode down the hall in the castle. He had a stack of papers in hand that needed the imperial seal, so he was on his way to a meeting with the only person in the Empire who outranked him.

It was still hard to believe he was the commandant sometimes. He'd come so far from that lonely little boy in the lower quarter. Of course, he'd had plenty of trials along the way. That whole adventure that started after Estellise climbed out a window to find him had helped him get here. It had turned out ok, though. He'd made some good friends on that journey.

He stopped in front of an ornate door and knocked. Although he knew he wouldn't be in trouble for barging in, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. After being summoned in, Flynn stepped into the imperial office.

"Good afternoon, Your Majesty." He bowed his head as he stood before the desk.

Estellise smiled at him. "Hi, Flynn. You know you don't have to be so formal."

He smiled back and dropped his poise. "Habit. Can you stamp these, please?" He slid into one of the leatherbound chairs across the desk.

"With pleasure." Empress Estellise quickly ran through the papers with the imperial seal. As she worked, she asked, "What do you want to do for dinner tonight?"

Flynn shrugged. "It hasn't even occurred to me."

"You're working yourself too hard." She handed the papers back with a reprimanding frown. "Stop killing yourself."

Flynn took the papers but before she could pull her hand back, he caught her wrist. "I'm doing it for you." He kissed the back of her hand. "Security at the jubilee is very important to me."

Estellise's frown turned into a soft smile. "Don't worry about me too much."

"Only the best for you." In just over a week, Estellise would celebrate one year as the empress. It was the longest period of sustained peace and progress the Empire had seen in generations, so they were keen to celebrate it.

"But what are we doing for dinner?" Estellise asked as she pulled her hand away.

"What do you feel like?"

"Hm… I don't know, you decide."

Flynn sighed. Estellise was getting good at making political decisions, and he was proud of how mature she'd become in the past year, but when it came to deciding things about her personal life she still defaulted to others' advice. "Let's have the chef surprise us. Come to my rooms around seven and I'll have dinner sent up."

"That sounds wonderful!"

"I'll look forward to it." He rose to his feet. "Now, I'm sorry, but I do need to get back to work."

"I understand. Have a good day."

Flynn opened the door just as a knight was about to knock.

"Oh! Sorry, sir."

"Is something wrong?"

"There's an old man insisting he talk to you."

Flynn frowned. "An old man?"

"He gave his name as Hanks. He says it's urgent. Shall I tell him to leave, sir?"

"Hanks? No, no, let him in. I'll meet with him in my office right away." Hanks wouldn't come all the way up to the castle without a good reason.

Ten minutes later, Flynn stood up as Hanks entered his office. "Good afternoon. What's this emergency?"

Hanks stared at him for a few seconds, frowned, and then sighed. "I'm not sure I can explain and I don't think you'd believe me. I don't believe it myself. You'd better come with me."

His curiosity thoroughly piqued, Flynn followed Hanks out of the castle. The heat smacked his face when he stepped outside, like opening an oven door. It hit him with memories, too, like it always did. Every broiling summer day, he couldn't help but remember  _that_  summer. Had it really been thirteen years now?

He remembered being a child and stubbornly insisting that Yuri would always be his best friend, since they'd already spent so much of their lives together. It had been around his mid-teens when he suddenly realized he didn't think about Yuri too often anymore. Somewhere along the line, Yuri had shifted from an absentee best friend to a childhood mystery. He wondered about it sometimes, generally on hot summer nights when he couldn't sleep and lay awake thinking about the past. When he was a kid, he'd tried to figure out where Yuri had gone out of a desire to find him again. Now, it was mostly an issue of curiosity.

Thoughts of Yuri occupied him all the way to the lower quarter. By the time they arrived, sweat dripped down the back of his neck and he regretted the black turtleneck that was part of his uniform. Hanks led him into his house and to the back bedroom, where he stopped with his hand on the doorknob. "I don't know how to explain this. Some construction workers found a kid passed out on the street and brought him to me. When I saw him, well… I thought I ought to get you."

He opened the door and Flynn entered the room. Asleep in the bed was a scrawny boy. Flynn got closer and when he stood over the bed, he could no longer ignore what his eyes were telling him. Except, he had to, because they couldn't possibly be right. He stared at the boy's face for nearly a minute before looking back at Hanks and saying, "But he looks exactly like…."

"I know." Hanks crossed his arms. "What do you make of it?"

Flynn turned to Hanks but his eyes kept trailing back to that familiar face. "Has he said anything?"

"Hasn't been conscious yet."

"Does he have any injuries?"

"Not that I can see. He's just asleep. Didn't even budge as I carried him here. What do you think, Flynn? It can't really be him, can it?"

Flynn turned to stare at the boy. "I don't know what I think." There was no logical way this could possibly be Yuri. His friend had disappeared and most likely died when he eight years old; Flynn had come to terms with that truth years ago. And yet, every detail was just as Flynn remembered. The shoulder-length black hair dampened by sweat, the baggy grey shirt he'd last been seen wearing that had been imprinted in Flynn's memory, and the exact features of his face. After Yuri first disappeared, Flynn kept thinking every new kid he saw was him for a few seconds. This wasn't like that. This boy  _did_  look exactly like the friend he had lost all those years ago, but logically it couldn't be. Even if Yuri was alive, he would be twenty-two years old by now.

"I'm going to take him back to the castle. If there's something keeping him from waking up, I want Estellise to have a look at him." Take control of what he did understand. Whoever this boy was, he was a child and he was in trouble. Flynn could handle that. Deal with the uncanny resemblance later.

Flynn gently scooped the boy into his arms. He wasn't that heavy. Yuri had never been very heavy, Flynn recalled. For most of their childhood he was scrawny and underfed, but that didn't matter because of course this child wasn't Yuri.

It seemed like a long walk back to the castle. Maybe it was the heat draining his energy, or maybe it was the weight of confusion dragging him down. At the castle, he carried the boy to his room and laid him on his bed. The boy looked comically small in the huge bed that came with the commandant's suite.

There was a growl and Flynn's dog, Repede, sat beside him with his eye locked on the boy. Flynn absently reached down to rub his head. "Are you going to help me keep an eye on him, then?"

Fifteen minutes later, Estellise had managed to pull herself away from her duties to come to his room. "Flynn?" The door clicked as she closed it behind her.

Flynn stepped out of the bedroom where he'd been watching the boy sleep, deep in thought. "In here."

"What's wrong? I was told you needed me for an emergency. Did something happen with Hanks?"

"There's a child who might need your help."

Those words hooked her attention. She hurried past him into the room and rushed to the bed. "What happened? Where is he hurt?"

"I'm not sure." Flynn stood back as Estelle sat on the side of the bed. "Hanks said he was found passed out on the street. He hasn't woken up yet, but there are no signs of physical injuries. What do you think?"

"Hm…" Estelle rested the back of her hand on the boy's forehead. "Well… if he isn't injured, there isn't really anything I can do." She pulled her hand back to her lap and twisted to face him. "The only thing I can recommend is to keep an eye on him and hope he wakes up soon. Who is he?"

Flynn hesitated. "That's… we're not entirely sure."

"Flynn? What's wrong?"

He didn't want to tell her or she'd think he was crazy. If he could tell anyone, though, it was her. Estellise had been his closest friend ever since he was first stationed at the castle, and now that she was more than just a friend to him, he knew he could tell her anything. "Do you remember the boy I told you about from my childhood?"

"The one who went missing?"

He nodded once and spoke with his eyes on the boy. "I know it's impossible. I know this sounds crazy. But… this boy looks  _exactly_  like my old friend. He's even wearing the same clothes."

"But Flynn, your friend went missing thirteen years ago. This boy can't be older than ten at the most."

"I know, that's why I know it's crazy. Maybe it's because we're in the middle of a heat wave just like the summer he went missing and it's keeping him on my mind. It's probably just a weird coincidence."

"The important thing is to find out who this boy is. His parents must be worried sick about him."

Flynn nodded. "There isn't much we can do until he wakes up, though. I'll have Repede watch over him for now."

"Ok. We should both get back to work now, but please let me know if you learn anything. And Flynn," she took his hands, "don't overthink this. I know it must be hard for you to see someone who looks so much like a person you lost, but you know this is an unrelated child, right?"

Flynn squeezed her hands back and nodded. "Of course."

"What happened when you were a child was horrible. It makes sense for it to be on your mind." She leaned forward on her toes to kiss his cheek. "Let's focus on the child in front of us. This one, at least, you can still help."

* * *

The sun had gone down now. Flynn had opened a window in the main room and a warm breeze snuck into the room accompanied by the chirping of crickets. Flynn sat on the couch, deep in thought, while Estellise laid out with her head resting on his lap and a book in hand.

It still baffled him sometimes. Ten years ago, he was a scared orphan struggling to survive alone in the lower quarter. Today he sat in a grand apartment in the castle with the empress' head in his lap.

They'd gone through a lot of pain to get here, of course. Flynn hadn't been able to accompany Estellise and thier new friends on the entirety of their journey, but he'd joined them whenever he could and participated in his share of hardship. He'd never forget the terror he'd felt when Estellise was captured by Alexei. If Alexei hadn't released her because he needed her to be a puppet ruler, Flynn shuddered to think what might have happened.

"Flynn." Estellise's voice broke him out of his thoughts. "You really need to stop worrying."

"I'm not."

She tilted her head back to meet his eyes. "I can feel how tense you are." She rested her book on her lap and reached an arm across her chest to rest it on his knee. "I talked to the doctors at the infirmary and they agreed there's nothing we can do for the boy until he wakes up."

He moved his hand to cradle her head and his fingers twined through her hair. "I know that. That's not what I was thinking about."

"Is it about Yuri?"

Flynn frowned. "He has been on my mind all day."

"If only we could find out what happened."

"Actually… I'm pretty sure I know what happened."

"Oh?"

Sometimes Flynn remembered the men trawling the river in the days after Yuri's disappearance. He had been sixteen when he realized they'd been looking for a body. "When I was little, I used to daydream about him getting abducted by spirits and setting out on a mission to rescue him. I haven't wondered too deeply about it since I grew up, though. There's only one explanation that makes sense. An eight year old boy can't just disappear within a city. I toyed with the idea that he'd fallen off a roof or fell into the river and drowned, but we would have found a body. This was no accident."

Estellise's hand covered her mouth. "Oh, no. You don't think…?"

"I hate to believe it." His brow furrowed. "But someone else must have been involved. Somebody made him disappear."

"But why would they want to make a little boy disappear? It isn't like he was anybody important."

Flynn looked down at her sweet, innocent face. "Well… I don't think they were after  _him_ , specifically. I mean… there are people out there who would do terrible things to children... if he was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

He couldn't bring himself to spell this out for Estellise. He didn't even want to put it into words himself. Everyone always wanted to believe that the lower quarter was one big family and in general the streets in his neighbourhood were very safe, but monsters could be lurking in any crowd. There were villains in the world who did atrocious things to people, and sometimes those people were children.

"Oh…" Estellise's face filled with anguish. "You don't mean…?"

"He must have been abducted. It's the only thing that makes sense. And I don't see a scenario where this abduction has a happy ending. If he was ever able to free himself, he would have tried to contact me at some point in the last thirteen years." Flynn shook his head tightly. "No, I realized a few years ago that the only logical conclusion is that he was killed and his killer disposed of his body in a way we'd never find."

It broke Flynn's heart to imagine what might have happened to his old friend. By the time he settled on the abducted and murdered theory, though, he was old enough that his grief was centered on the tragedy of something like that happening to such a young child, rather than personal grief for a friend. Sometimes he wondered what their current friendship would have been like if Yuri had been given the chance to grow up, but as it stood, Flynn mostly thought of him as that mysterious little boy from his childhood.

"That's horrible."

"I'm sorry." The hand not cradling her head clasped hers on her stomach. "It's not a very nice thing to think about." The adults in the lower quarter must have suspected something like this had happened by the morning after he disappeared. Flynn remembered all those conversations that stopped as soon as he came into view and imagined the grim details they'd no doubt been shielding him from.

"It's not… but we can talk about it if it helps you."

He squeezed her hand. "It's all right, but thank you." Estellise was one of the few people outside the lower quarter who even knew about Yuri. Flynn didn't bring him up often because for the most part, he'd tried to put that part of his past behind him. He'd lost his father, and then he'd lost his best friend, and then he'd lost his mother. He would never have been able to focus on his career if he let all that grief hold him back. "What are your plans tomorrow?"

"Hm? Well… I have to meet with the Council in the morning."

Flynn watched her with a smile as she chatted about tomorrow's schedule. It was hard, sometimes, finding time to be together. He was the commandant and she was the empress, so both of their professional responsibilities occupied most of their time.

Their idle conversation lasted about ten minutes until they heard the door to the bedroom creak open. They both froze for a solid second before Flynn whipped his head around and Estellise bolted upright. The boy stood in the doorway and stared at them in confusion. His eyes were grey, Flynn couldn't help but notice.

"Where the heck am I?" the boy blurted. "Did you bring me here? Who are you?"

Flynn gently pushed Estellise aside and sprang to his feet. "I'm sorry to frighten you."

The boy crossed his arms and stuck out his chin. It was such a Yuri-look, but no, it  _couldn't_  be. "I'm not scared. I'm just mad 'cause someone dragged me to some noble jerk's house."

"My name is Commandant Flynn." He dropped to one knee when he reached the boy so they could look eye-to-eye. "A man in the lower quarter found you passed out. I was worried about your health so I brought you to the castle."

"You're not the commandant."

"I'm sorry? Yes, I am."

"Nu-uh. The commandant is Alexei."

Flynn frowned. "Alexei passed away last year. I'm his replacement." Where had this boy been for the last year?

"What? No he didn't. I'd remember if Alexei was dead, and I'd especially remember if the commandant had the same name as my best friend."

Flynn's confusion deepened and he was starting to feel light-headed. His  _voice_. He hadn't heard his friend speak for so many years, but this child's cadence and tone resonated in Flynn's memories. "I assure you, I am. What's your name?"

"Yuri."

Flynn's heart stopped for a long second. When he was able to pay attention again, Estellise had reached them.

"Yuri, do you know who I am?" she asked sweetly, giving Flynn a worried look.

"Nah. Should I?"

"I'm Empress Estellise."

If he was impressed by being spoken to by the empress, he didn't show it. "Empress of what?"

She paused. "Well… of the Empire."

"We don't have an empress."

He hadn't known Alexei died, so of course he didn't know Estellise was crowned. What a strange boy. What a  _coincidental_  boy, because Yuri wasn't that uncommon a name, right?

"We do now," Estellise said. "I want to help you. Who are your parents? They must be worried sick about you."

Yuri shrugged. "I don't have parents, but I'm living with Mrs. Scifo and my friend Flynn. It looks like it's dark outside, though, so yeah they're probably kinda worried."

Flynn barely heard the last part. Estellise shot him a look and Flynn struggled to remember how to breathe. "Yuri…" he choked out at last, "this is very important. What's your last name?"

"Lowell."

"And who is your best friend?"

"Flynn Scifo. Why?"

"And… what do you remember before you woke up here?"

"Um…" Yuri chewed on his lower lip and looked to the ceiling as he thought. "Lessee… I remember… oh, yeah! Flynn and I were gonna play hide and seek, and he was being dumb and claiming he was better at it than me. Then I went to find somewhere to hide and then… uh…." His eyes swivelled back to Flynn with a frown. "That's all I remember."

It was him. It was impossible, but it was him. This really was  _his_  Yuri Lowell. How could this have happened? Time travel? Was that possible? It had to be, or else how was eighty-year-old Yuri Lowell in his living room? All those years of wondering where Yuri had gone, and now Flynn knew: he'd come here.

"So…" Yuri looked between Flynn and Estellise's stunned faces, "am I in trouble?"

"No," Flynn said slowly. "You're not, but…. We need to explain some things. Come sit down."

Yuri followed them to the couch. He sat between Flynn and Estellise, kicking his legs and looking around the room with curiosity. It was the most formal room Yuri had ever been in, certainly.

"Now, Yuri," Flynn looked down at him and Yuri pulled his eyes from the crown moulding. "There's no gentle way to explain this. I believe you have travelled through time."

"Huh?"

"Yuri… I'm Flynn Scifo."

"No you're not. Flynn's eight. Wait, no, he had his birthday last week. He's nine now."

"Yes, I am. Thirteen years ago, my best friend and I were going to play hide and seek. His name was Yuri Lowell and he disappeared."

Yuri stared at him in confusion. "What?"

"My father was Finath Scifo. He was a knight who died when I was eight. My mother was Helen Scifo."

Yuri jumped to his feet. "How d'ya know all this stuff about Flynn, huh?! What are you trying to play? Time travel? Commandant? Who are you people?"

"I told you, Yuri. I'm Flynn. You've been gone for thirteen years."

"I know it's scary," Estellise said, "but we'll get to the bottom of what happened. You can stay with us while we figure out what's going on."

"I'm not staying with you! You guys kidnapped me and now you're pretending I travelled through time or whatever! I'm going home."

He ran for the door and Flynn leapt to his feet to follow. "Yuri, slow down. We don't know what's happening either." He reached Yuri and grabbed his arm, but then Yuri's foot came down hard on his instep and he flinched, releasing Yuri. The boy shoved the door open and ran into the hall.

"After him," Flynn grunted, hopping on one foot. "I don't want him running around on his own."

Estellise ran passed him and dashed down the hall. He heard her shout, "Guards! Stop that boy!"


	3. A Wrinkle in Time

Yuri ran. He could hear the knights behind him, so there wasn't time to stop and think. All he knew was that he was in a weird place with weird people who knew far too much about him. Time travel? They really expected him to believe that? He was eight years old, not a little kid!

Whoever those weirdos were, they hadn't been lying about being in the castle. They must be some nobles who had a sick idea of fun that involved kidnapping kids and messing with them. Well, he wasn't here for their amusement! He needed to get back to the lower quarter before Flynn -  _his_  Flynn, the real one - started crying or something.

Yuri dashed past a startled maid and around another corner. Man, where was the exit? This place was huge! Maybe he could climb out a window or something if he got to the first floor.

As long as he outran the knights! He was out of breath already and those guys had long legs. Yuri found a staircase and scampered down it. At the end of the hall, he spotted an open window. It had been left open to let in the breeze, but he was going to use it to let himself out. Yuri reached the window, grabbed the frame, hauled himself up, and then froze as he looked out. He was on the first floor of the castle, so he could jump down to the grounds from here and then try to find a way over the wall. It was night now and the thick, warm air smelled like dead grass. That wasn't what Yuri was focused on, though.

The sky was empty. Rather, it was filled with more stars than he had ever seen, because normally they were drowned out by the light from the barrier. Now, the barrier was gone. After spending his entire life looking up and seeing that protective light, the sky looked alien without it. If the barrier was gone, monsters could get into the city! Why weren't more people freaked out by this?! He  _had_  to get to the lower quarter and make sure Flynn and his mom were all right.

"Ah-ha!" Someone grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked. "Got you now, boy."

"Hey! Lemme go!" A knight grabbed his upper arm and twisted his it painfully behind his back. "Ow, stop!" Yuri twisted and pulled to try to escape, but then he turned enough to see who had grabbed him and his blood ran cold.

There was no reason for this reaction, which was the odd thing. Yuri had never seen this knight before in his life. Something about his powder blue hair and garish purple uniform just made Yuri's stomach clench and his hands turn clammy. He felt like he  _should_  know this man, and know why his pointed face caused so much anxiety, but it was like trying to remember a fading dream.

"Breaking and entering for a little thrill, are you?" the knight sneered. "Don't think you can escape punishment because you're still a child."

"I didn't break anything!" Yuri took a chance and rammed his free elbow back. It smashed right between the knight's legs, but he was wearing something hard for protection and Yuri ended up hurting his elbow.

He did succeed in annoying him, though. "Why, you little-!" He raised his hand and Yuri braced himself for the strike.

"Captain Cumore!" The man calling himself Flynn rushed down the stairs toward him, Estellise close behind. "That will not be necessary."

Cumore straightened up and lowered his hand. "Ah, there you are, Commandant. I was apprehending this child as per your orders."

Flynn reached them and Yuri found himself sandwiched between a pair of adults he didn't like. He didn't want to think of this Flynn guy as his rescuer, because he had kidnapped him in the first place, but he was grateful he hadn't been hit.

"Thank you," Flynn said, "but he is not a criminal so please let go of him."

Cumore glowered at Flynn but said, "If you insist,  _sir_."

As soon as he released his grip, Yuri dove for the window. Flynn caught the back of his shirt and then grabbed his waist.

"Oh, no you don't. You're coming with me." For the second time, Yuri was pulled away from the window. To Flynn's credit, he did it more gently. "Captain Cumore, your assistance is appreciated but no longer required. You are dismissed."

Cumore bowed slightly. "By your leave, Your Majesty."

After he was gone, Estellise said, "We're sorry we scared you, Yuri."

"I'm not scared," he pouted and crossed his arms. Flynn stood next to him with his hand firmly on Yuri's shoulder. "But…" his eyes went back to the window, "where's the barrier?"

"We don't have barriers anymore," Estellise explained. "We found out blastia were harming the world, so we got rid of them."

Yuri looked around the marble hallway and suddenly realized the lighting came from the flickering of gas rather than the steady light of blastia. Flynn and Cumore were both high ranking knights, but they weren't wearing any blastia either. There was no denying what he'd seen in the sky, either. There really were no blastia. That couldn't have happened in one afternoon.

Flynn got down on one knee. "I know this is hard to believe. I'm struggling to believe it myself. But I really am Flynn Scifo, and you really are in the future." He held out his forearm, just like Flynn used to when they started their special highfive.

Tentatively, Yuri bumped his forearm against Flynn's and then lifted it to the air to see what the man would do. Flynn mimicked his actions perfectly and slapped Yuri's hand in the air without missing a beat. It was exactly the way he and Flynn always highfived, except now the other's hand dwarfed his own.

Now that he was over the initial shock of waking, he took the time to really look at this man's face. When he got beyond the unfamiliar signs of age - the stubble on the defined chin, the new lines around eyes that seemed smaller in a larger face - he saw all the things that weren't different. The shape of his nose, the way he held his mouth, even his hair was the same unmanageable blond mess.

"...Flynn?"

He nodded. "That's right. It's me."

"But… you're… you're  _old_."

Flynn pouted. "I'm only twenty-two."

"That's really old!"

Estellise covered her mouth with a giggle.

"It is not old," Flynn insisted.

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

Yuri had to snicker at the stubborn expression on Flynn's face. Yeah, this was definitely Flynn.

Flynn seemed to realize he'd gotten into a bickering argument with an eight-year-old and his face relaxed. "Anyway." He stood up straight. "Estellise, would you mind leaving us alone tonight? I think Yuri and I need to talk."

"Yes, of course." She gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. "I'll be in my room if you need anything. Have a good night."

After she left, Yuri started following Flynn toward his apartment. After a long silence, Yuri smirked at Flynn. "So… you  _like_  her, don't you?"

Flynn looked down at him. "Yes. We're in a relationship."

"Ha-ha, Flynn has a crush."

"It's more than a crush, Yuri."

Yuri scowled. "You're no fun anymore."

When they reached Flynn's place, the big dog Yuri remembered from earlier paced up to them and sniffed Yuri's hand.

"Yuri, this is Repede. Don't worry, he likes kids."

Repede woofed and sat before Yuri. "Hi." Yuri rubbed the side of his neck.

"See, he likes you already."

Yuri didn't stop petting him to ask, "What happened to his eye?"

"He got hurt when he was still a puppy. He's ok now, though."

"Oh, ok."

Flynn asked, "Are you hungry?"

It had been a long time since lunch, Yuri remembered. Actually, it had been thirteen years. That was still so hard to believe. Most of his afternoon was gone in a fog, but this morning didn't seem like that long ago. He pulled his hand away from Repede and nodded. "Yeah, I'm starving."

"I'll make you a burger."

"You know how to cook?"

Flynn hesitated and then confidently stated, "Yes."

"I can cook too, you know."

"No, you can't." Flynn crossed to the kitchen.

"I can, too!" Yuri hurried after him.

"Knowing how to make toast doesn't count as knowing how to cook."

In the kitchen, Yuri clambered up a stool by the counter so he wasn't so far below Flynn's eye-level. "It's cooking, isn't it? The bread cooks into toast. Cooking."

Flynn smiled. "Sure, Yuri." He pulled out a pan and then dug ground beef out of the icebox.

As Flynn prepared the burger, Yuri looked around the apartment. It was bigger than the house they'd lived in with Flynn's mom. The marble floor was covered in a blue rug and all the furniture had swirling decorations carved into the legs and arms. The couch was soft suede and so plush it was like sitting on a cloud, and he remembered waking up in a bed that was bigger than the tiny room he and Flynn shared. Used to share.

Yuri looked back to Flynn, who was now grilling a burger-shaped piece of meat in the pan. He leaned forward and rested his cheek on his fist. "I like this future. You're really rich and you have a pretty girlfriend and jerk knights do what you say."

"Things have definitely turned out well for me."

"Who was that knight from earlier? The one who was gonna hit me?"

Flynn's happy expression soured. "Oh, him. His name's Captain Cumore. You know we used to complain about the knights who were awful to our neighbourhood? He's one of the worst of those."

"Ick. Can't you fire him?"

"I'd love to, but he has too many connections with the Council. Last year, he did some truly horrible things in Mantaic, but managed to pull enough strings to get pardoned. He hasn't done anything awful enough for discharge since I became commandant and I can't discipline him for things he's already been pardoned for."

"That sucks. He creeps me out."

"I'm doing my best to reform the Knighthood, but it's a slow process."

"What's that mean?"

"It means it's taking a long time."

Yuri rolled his eyes. "Not that part, dummy. 'Re-form'," he said the word slowly.

"Oh. It means to fix it and make it better."

"Oh, ok." Yuri didn't like how much more…  _grown up_  Flynn was now. Flynn had always been stronger and faster and smarter than him, and now he was all of those things times infinity. Flynn was a successful grown up and Yuri was still a kid. He was  _never_  going to catch up now. "Is that supposed to be smoking?"

"Hm? Oh!" Flynn snatched the burger off the pan with a pair of tongs and threw it on the waiting bun. "Oops. It's still ok."

Yuri smirked. "Thought you knew how to cook?"

"I can cook better than you, Mr. Toast-is-Cooking. What do you want on it? Lettuce? Tomato? Onion?"

Yuri wrinkled his nose. "Ew, that stuff's gross. Just put cheese on it. Lots of cheese!"

"That's all? Just cheese?"

"Yeah."

"That's not very healthy."

Yuri crossed his arms. "I don't want to eat healthy, I want it to taste good."

"If you insist."

Flynn brought the plate to him and Yuri dug in with gusto. He hadn't had a meal like this in ages. Flynn's mom made sure they never starved, but they never had more than they absolutely needed.

"Hey," he paused between bites, "shouldn't we go see your mom and tell her I'm ok?"

Flynn, standing across the counter from him, paused and tightened his face. "Ah…. Yuri, the thing is… my mother passed away a long time ago."

Yuri slowly lowered the burger to the plate. "What? Mrs. Scifo is… is dead?"

"She got sick. It was a few years after you disappeared."

Yuri gaped at him. "But - but I just saw her this morning!"

"I'm so sorry."

"Who else is dead? What about Hanks? He's still here, right?"

Flynn nodded fervently. "Yes, Hanks is perfectly fine. He's the one who found you."

"And Mrs. Cameli?" She was a nice old lady who lived in the lower quarter and gave them candy sometimes.

Flynn shook his head. "I'm sorry. She passed away about five years ago."

"Oh…." He looked down at his plate. He'd missed everything. Now Flynn was a grown up and the grown ups he'd known were gone. His best friend had lived a whole life and Yuri had missed all of it. What was he supposed to do now? He didn't belong in this world, but he had no idea how to go back to his own time. "So… what do I do now?"

"I don't know." Flynn rounded the counter and sat on the stool next to Yuri. "You can stay here if you want."

"I don't have anywhere else to go. Is it ok to stay in the castle?"

"Of course. I'm the commandant. If I say you can stay, you can stay."

"Well… ok, I guess I'll hang out here." He finished his burger and pushed the plate away. "Ok, now you need to tell me everything you've been doing since I left."

"Everything?"

"Yeah. How'd you get to be the commandant and date the empress? I want to know everything!"

"That might be a bit of a long story."

* * *

Flynn told Yuri everything he could. He had to summarize a lot, but he got the main details about joining the Knights and working his way through the ranks. Yuri was especially excited when Flynn told him about the adventure last year and kept stopping him to ask questions about monsters and villains.

Eventually, the questions came less and less. Yuri leaned against the pillows on the side of the couch and struggled to keep his eyes open. Flynn was telling him about Duke and the Adephagos when he glanced at the clock and suddenly wondered what an appropriate bedtime for an eight-year-old was. It had to be earlier than midnight, which was the time now. Yuri had slept all afternoon, but passing out post-time travel probably wasn't very restful.

"We should stop for the night. I'll get you a blanket and you can sleep on the couch."

Yuri must have been tired because he didn't even argue. Flynn lent him a shirt to sleep in that was comically large on Yuri's slight frame and then Yuri stood to the side while Flynn pulled sheets out of the closet and spread them over the couch. When everything was arranged, Yuri climbed back onto the cushions and Flynn spread a sheet over him.

"Hold on, I just remembered something." Flynn hurried to his bedroom and then reached for a box at the back of his closet. There were two faded, grungy stuffed animals in the box, and Flynn carefully pulled out the wolf. Many times over the years, he'd considered throwing out Yuri's favourite toy, but he could never bring himself to. When he was younger he insisted on keeping it safe for Yuri when he returned, and when he was older it just felt heartless to toss the last personal possession of a dead child into the garbage. He was glad he'd held onto it now.

"Here." He returned to the living room and held it out. "I kept this for you."

Yuri's face lit up. "Growly!" He grabbed the toy with a smile, but then then quickly shoved it under his sheet and crossed his arms. "I mean, it's not like I  _need_  it or anything. It's pretty lame that you still have it."

Flynn just smiled. "Right, Yuri. I know you've had a frightening day, but try to get a good sleep."

"It wasn't frightening!"

"Of course not. Sorry for saying it was. Don't hesitate to wake me up if you need anything. Goodnight."

"'Night."

After getting ready for bed himself, Flynn lay on his mattress and stared at the ceiling. Yuri Lowell was back. He wasn't even sure how he felt about this. Happy? Excited? More like confused and overwhelmed. He hadn't actually missed Yuri or wished he would return in years. He was happy Yuri hadn't been murdered, but to have him in his life again was more than he had bargained for. What was he supposed to do with a child? Certainly he and Yuri would never be friends the way they used to - the gap in age and experience was too wide.

Should he send him back to the lower quarter to grow up? But that seemed cruel. The lower quarter was their home, but the people there still lived in poverty. He couldn't impose a new mouth to feed on anyone he knew, and it seemed heartless to kick Yuri out of the luxury of the castle to go live in the slums again. Could Yuri stay here, though? What he needed was a parent. It had been so hard for Flynn to grow up alone without parents, and he didn't want Yuri to grow up like that too.

He had to find a family for him. Flynn was far too busy with work to take care of a child, but there were plenty of childless couples in Zaphias who wanted a kid, right? With his connections, he could find a good, loving, stable home for him. With that decided, Flynn rolled over and tried to go to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Yuri was still on Flynn's couch.  _Oh_ , Flynn thought as he paused in the doorway. It hadn't been a dream. Yuri was fast asleep on the couch, the sheet abandoned on the floor. One leg hung over the edge and his arm rested on his chest.

Flynn poured cereal into a bowl. What was he supposed to do with him now? He had work to do; he couldn't babysit Yuri all day. Well, he considered as he poured milk into the bowl, Yuri didn't really need constant supervision. His mother had left them alone plenty of times. This whole mess had started when they were off playing alone, and the castle was certainly safer than the lower quarter.

He poured himself a glass of juice and turned around to find Yuri sitting up and leaning over the back of the couch. "Good morning."

"Hi. Is that your breakfast?"

Flynn set it on the counter and began to eat standing up. "Yes. Are you hungry?"

Yuri bobbed his head.

"What would you like?"

"Uh… what is there?"

Flynn had limited food in his apartment because he usually had the kitchen staff bring him prepared meals. "Well… there's cereal here, but I can get just about anything brought up from the kitchen."

Yuri's eyes widened. "Anything?"

Flynn nodded. "It's the best stocked kitchen in the empire. What would you like?"

Yuri thought for a moment as the endless options of food ran before his mind. With an excited smile he said, "Cake!"

"For breakfast?"

Yuri nodded fervently. "Yeah, can I have cake? You said I can have anything, right?"

"That's not really a filling breakfast…."

Yuri crossed his arms. "So?"

Flynn sighed. "I'll see what I can do." He shovelled a few more bites into his mouth; he was used to eating fast. "Yuri, for today, I want you to stay on the castle grounds but other than that, you can go where you like. I'm going to inform the knights that my nephew is staying with me so they won't stop you. Feel free to explore and play anywhere you wish as long as you don't bother anyone."

"Wow, really? I can just run around the castle?"

Flynn saw his expression and remembered what their childhood had been like. More forcefully, he repeated, "As long as you don't bother anyone."

"Yeah, yeah, ok."

"I have to leave shortly, but I'll have someone bring breakfast and some clothes for you."

"What's wrong with the clothes I have?"

"They're filthy." Flynn had been shocked at the state of Yuri's clothes. He didn't remember his clothing being so patched and threadbare, but he supposed if he was being honest, he'd spent most of his childhood wearing hand-me-downs from older kids in the neighbourhood. Clothes in the lower quarter were never wasted; they were just handed down to the next kid until they disintegrated. Yuri couldn't keep wearing Flynn's shirt, either. The short sleeves came down to his elbows and it looked more like a dress.

"Ok, but I don't want any fancy nobley clothes with like buttons and lace and stuff."

Flynn smiled slightly. "I'll get you the simplest clothes I can find. If you have any problems today, just come to my office. Ask any knight in the building and they can tell you which way to go."

"Ok!"

"I have to go to work now. Wait here until breakfast and clothes come up. Don't get into trouble."

Yuri rolled his eyes. "I won't."

Flynn didn't go straight to work. After finding a maid and asking for clothes and breakfast to be sent to his room, he went to visit Estellise. He found her in her room, still in a nightgown and reading the newspaper at the breakfast table.

"Good morning, Flynn!" She beamed at him. "How was last night? Did things go ok with Yuri?"

Flynn sat around the corner from her and let out a long breath. "I suppose you could say that."

She frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"No, not wrong. Just… I'm still feeling overwhelmed."

"No kidding. I'd feel overwhelmed, too, if someone I thought was dead suddenly came back to my life. Plus there's the whole question of time travel."

Flynn leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms. "You know, I've been thinking a lot about that. I remember the day he vanished very clearly, and I recall that right before he ran off, we'd been talking about the mages. They'd been conducting some kind of experiment in the lower quarter that summer, as I recall, and Yuri was keen to investigate. What if instead of hiding, he decided to check it out? And what if whatever the mages were working on sent him through time?"

Estellise nodded slowly. "That would make sense. Well, I mean, it makes more sense than anything else. Rita and the others are coming to town tomorrow for the parade next week. Maybe she can help."

"I was going to ask you talk to her. If the mages had something to do with it, maybe a mage can help us now."

"Do you mean you want to send him back?"

Flynn froze for a moment and slowly met her eyes. "Send him back? I just meant to explain how he got here, but if it's possible…." How would that work, though? Flynn was here and he had lived his life without Yuri. If Yuri went back to his time, that would mean he'd been here all along, and obviously he hadn't been. Would time change? Would it snap back and the him that he was now would cease to exist? Flynn rubbed his forehead. "Time travel hurts my head."

Estelle smiled in sympathy. "Me, too. I don't know how it would work. I'll ask Rita."

"Thank you. Anyway, I ought to get to work. I'll see you tonight for dinner?"

"Of course."


	4. Death and What Comes Next

The clothes Flynn had sent up were tolerable.  Yuri wore loose beige pants and a button-up green shirt trimmed in gold. The fabric was thicker and softer than anything he’d ever worn before, but at least nobody expected him to wear tights.

He’d just finished getting dressed when breakfast arrived.  A serving girl carried a covered plate into the room and smiled at him.  “Good morning.  Are you Master Yuri?”

Yuri’s chest puffed up; he’d never been master anything.  “Yeah.”

“Commandant Flynn asked for this meal to be brought to you.” She set it on the kitchen table.  “Bon appetit!”

As she left, Yuri wasn’t willing to admit he didn’t know what she meant.  Bone appetite?  Was he eating bones? His stomach rumbled, so he decided to find out.  Yuri slid into the chair at the table and pulled the domed lid off the plate.  A steaming plate of pancakes slathered in butter and syrup met him, which was much better than bones.  There was a side plate with a few strips of bacon and a peach, as well as a glass of orange juice.  Yuri grinned when he saw a frosted cupcake sitting in the corner; Flynn hadn’t completely ignored his request, at least.

Yuri couldn’t wait any longer to dig in.  He couldn't remember the last time he had such a big breakfast.  If he wasn’t the only one in the room, he would have been sure he was meant to share this.  All this food was just for him!  The clothes were annoying, but being rich had its perks.  

After shoveling his face full of food, Yuri set off into the castle.  At first he was annoyed at being restricted to the building, but once he found the door to the garden and took one step outside, he changed his mind.  The sweltering heat sapped his strength after just a few seconds of exposing himself to it and he quickly hurried back inside to the cool hallways.  The castle must have some system for keeping cool, and he was going to take complete advantage of it.  

It turned out that the castle was huge.  He’d never been in a building this big and he ended up so turned around.  Every door he tried led to new discoveries and it didn’t matter then he didn’t have any toys or friends, because he was content to explore all morning.  

Eventually he realized the the slick floors would probably be awesome for sliding on, so he found a long stretch of hallway, took his shoes off, and gave himself a running start.  It was like sliding on ice.  He stuck out his arms to stabilize himself and let his socks whisk him down the hallway.  At the end, he turned around and glided right back.  With a grin plastered on his face, Yuri slid up and down the hall for at least fifteen minutes, and only banged his knees or elbows when falling a few times.  

His fun crashed to a halt when he slid toward the end of the hall and smashed into a man walking around the corner.  “Ack!”  Yuri fell backward as the man stumbled away.  “Sorry, mister!”  

“What is the meaning of this?!”  

Yuri looked up at purple armour and blue hair, and his heart sank.  “It was an accident.”

He started to get up, but Cumore grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him to his feet.  “Little brat.”

Yuri couldn’t pinpoint why he found Cumore so frightening, but his heart throbbed and he struggled to pry Cumore’s hand from his shirt.  “Lemme go!  You big jerk, let go of me!”

Cumore’s eyes narrowed.  “Who are you, anyway?  Where have I met you before?”

Where had he seen this guy before?  He must have some reason for why he had such deep fear and anger towards this man he supposedly only met yesterday. “I dunno.  I’d remember a face as ugly as yours.”

Cumore raised his hand and this time there was no Flynn to step in at the last minute.  The blow made his head snap to the side and Yuri’s hand flew to his cheek to cover the sore spot.  

“How dare you speak to your betters like that.  Children like you should be taught respect.”

“I didn’t even do anything!  I bumped into you on accident!”  He struggled enough that Cumore finally released his grip on his shirt.  

“The royal castle is no place for unsupervised children.”

Yuri glared at him.  “Yeah, well Flynn said I could go wherever I wanted and he’s your boss so you’d better deal with it.”

Cumore wrinkled his nose.  “Ah, that obnoxious upstart.  It is true, though, that he holds power, however ill-founded his promotion was.”

“Yeah, that’s right, Flynn’s the boss so you’d better do what he says!”  Yuri puffed himself up with pride for Flynn.  

Cumore gave him a look like he’d seen more pleasant things beneath his shoe.  “I’ll let you off with a warning this time, brat, but next time I catch you wreaking havoc, I won’t be so easy on you.”

Yuri crossed his arms.  “Yeah, whatever.”

Cumore sneered at him and then marched away.  Once he was gone, Yuri let himself shudder.  That guy was so creepy.  Still scowling and rubbing his sore face, Yuri stomped down the hall. He was in too sour a mood to go sliding now.  

He turned a few corners, wandering aimlessly, until he came to a door at the end of a hall.  There were pillars around it and its position at the end of the glossy hallway indicated it led somewhere important, and his curiosity spiked.  Maybe it was the treasury!  Yuri pushed the door open and stepped inside.

“Oh!”  Estellise looked up from her desk.  “Hello, Yuri.”

“Oops, sorry!”  He’d accidentally wandered into the empress’ office.  

He quickly backed out, but Estellise called, “No, it’s ok, you can come in.”

Yuri returned and closed the door behind him.  “You don’t mind?”

Estellise set her pen down and then stretched her arms before in.  “Not at all.”  She smiled at him.  “Actually, I could use the break.”

“Cool.”  Yuri wandered into the ornate office and stopped by her desk.  “What’cha working on?”  He peered over the desk to see her paper, but it was covered in confusingly swirly letters.  

“I’m writing a speech for the celebration next week.”  She slid the paper toward him.  “What do you think?  As an ordinary citizen of Zaphias, does it sound good to you?”

Yuri stared at the words and wrinkled his brow.  If he looked beyond the loops and curls, the first letter looked like an H.  Yuri began whispering the sounds as he worked it out.  “H… hel...hellllo.  Hello.  Ev...eh...er...yuh...oh...nee?”

Estellise pointed to the second word.  “That says ‘everyone’.  I’m sorry, I should have asked if you know how to read.”

“I can read!” He put his fists on his hips.  “Flynn’s mom taught me.”  His confidence faltered when he considered his cover would be blown as soon as she asked him to read further.  “Well… I mean, I’m still working it out and your handwriting’s all squiggly, so….”

She smiled and pulled the paper back.  “It looks like you’re getting off to a good start.”   

“I know what sounds they all make.”  Yuri scowled at the word ‘everyone’.  “But it’s not fair when they get together and make different sounds.  It’s like they’re ganging up on you.”

Estellise tilted her head with a smile.  “I never thought about it like that.  Maybe instead of ganging up on you, though, you can think of them as working together to help!  We don’t have a letter on it’s own that can make ‘thhh’ but if T and H work together they can do it.”

“Hmmm maybe.”

“Don’t worry.”  She patted his shoulder.  “I’m sure you’ll get it.  You just need more practice.  I’d offer to help you now, but…”  she looked back to her desk with a small sigh.  “I have so much work to do.”

“What kind of work?”

“Well… government work.  Taxes and laws and organization and things like that.”

“So you’re, like, the queen of everything, right?”

Estellise giggled.  “Of the Empire, yes.”

“That’s really cool.  I wish I was the king.  That would be awesome!”

“Oh?  And what would you do if you were the king?”

Yuri gave a confident grin.  “I’d make everything better for the lower quarter!”  

She tilted her head to the side.  “What sort of things?  I’m trying to help people, too, so what advice can you give me?”

“Um… well I’d give them more money.”  Yuri nodded confidently.  “‘Cause the problem is that we’re all poor, right?  And the government creates the gald.  So you should make more gald and give it to poor people so they won’t be poor.”  Really, the solution was so obvious.  Yuri could only assume the government had never done that because they didn’t actually want to help.  He didn’t like the way Estellise was smiling at him, though.  He’d seen that smile on grown-ups before, and it usually meant, ‘aw, how cute.’  That was fine for a five year old, but he was eight now, and definitely not cute!

“I’m not sure if that would really work,” Estellise said.  “I really wish it would, though.  Running the government can be so complicated sometimes.”  She sighed and leaned back in her chair.  “Too bad we can’t trade places.  I’d let you be the king and I’d get to run around and be free again.”

Yuri leaned forward, his chest pressed against the edge.  “You don’t want to be the empress?”

“It was never really what I wanted to do.”

“How come you don’t give the job to someone else, then?”

“There isn’t really anyone else who could.  You see, it came down to me and a relative named Ioder.  But, Ioder passed away last year, so I was the only heir left.”

Yuri frowned.  “He’s dead?”

Estellise nodded.  “That’s right. He drowned after a ship caught fire and sank.”

“Oh.”  Yuri ran his finger around a whirl in the wood.  He chewed on his lip, trying to understand everything about this future.  “So… was he old?”

“Well… no.  He was about my age.”

Yuri’s frown deepened.  He understood that old Mrs. Cameli was dead, because she had been really old even in the proper time.  And Flynn’s dad was gone, too, because he was a knight and knights did a dangerous job.  That made sense.  But Flynn said his mom was gone now, too, but how had that happened?  She wasn’t old.  But maybe he’d been wrong about how old you had to be to get sick and die.  Parents, he guessed, were old enough.  Ioder was only as old as Estellise, though, and she was.... probably not more than thirty or something.  People died at the end of their lives, but if people could just up and die at Estellise’s age, that meant no one was safe.  Could Flynn die?  Could Yuri himself die?  

“Yuri? What’s wrong?”

“I just… don’t get it.”

“What?”

“Dying.  People are here and then they’re not. Where did Flynn’s mom and dad go?  They’re dead, but… but what happened to them?  And how come Flynn’s mom died when she never did anything dangerous and she wasn’t really old?  Who picks who has to die?”  He rested his chin on his palm.

Estellise reached out to rest her hand on his shoulder.  “Oh, Yuri, even grown-ups don’t understand the answers to those questions.”

“Then who does?”

“Um… I don’t know.  I don’t think anyone really understands.”

“Someone’s gotta know.”

She smiled grimly.  “Not always.  There are things that will always be a mystery to us.”

“Hm….”  That wasn’t an answer he liked.  “Maybe they time-travelled, too.”

“Huh?”

“Well, I was there in the past right?  And then suddenly I was gone and now I’m here.  Maybe when people die, they jump to the future.  Only it’s a really distant future so we haven’t caught up to them yet.”

“Um… well, maybe.  It would probably be pretty crowded.”

Yuri nodded thoughtfully.  “Yeah, true.  So maybe it’s more spread out.  Like some people are earlier than others.”

“I bet that’s it.”

A knock came to the door and a man stepped inside and gave a short bow.  “Forgive me, Your Majesty, but the Council needs a response on the Zadrock Proposal within the hour.”

Estellise straightened up.  “Yes, sorry!  I’ll get right on that.”

He nodded again and then stepped out.  Estellise sighed and slumped against the chair.  “I’m sorry, Yuri, I really need to get back to work.  There’s always so much to do.”

“Yeah, I get it.  Sorry for bothering you.”

* * *

 

When it was mid-afternoon, the door to Flynn’s office pushed open without a knock and Yuri strode in.  “Hey.”

“Good afternoon.”  Flynn paused in writing his security briefing to smile at Yuri.  “Have you had a good day?”

Yuri wasted no time in throwing himself into a chair across from Flynn’s desk and declaring, “I’m bored.”

“How can you be bored?  You have the entire castle to explore.”

“Yeah, but it’s all the same.  Marble halls, cool statues, snooty jerks giving me dirty looks, more marble halls.  It’s too hot to play outside.  There’s nothing to do and no one to play with.”

“Well… what do you want me to do about it?”

“Play with me.”

Flynn sighed.  “Yuri, I have work to do.”

“Come oooon, just for a little?”

“I’ll entertain you tonight, ok?  It’s very important that I get everything in order for Estellise’s royal anniversary.”

Yuri heaved a dramatic sigh.  “Fiiiine.”

Flynn put his head down and got back to work.  This was really more of a celebration than a ceremony, and the whole city of Zaphias was invited so it would be on the streets rather than in the castle.  That meant it was impossible to screen all the attendees and there were a thousand places a potential assassin could hide.  

After a couple of minutes, a rhythmic thumping began as Yuri swung his legs and kicked the front of the desk.  After another minute of this, Flynn said, “Stop that,” without looking up.  He was blessed with silence for almost an entire minute until Yuri began tapping a tune on the edge of the desk.  Flynn squeezed his pen tighter and calmly said, “Yuri, is there anything else you can occupy yourself with?”

The drum solo stopped and Yuri moaned, “But there’s nothing to dooooo.”

Flynn put his pen down and stood up.  “Wait here.”  At the door to his office, he added, “I’m serious, I’ll be right back, don’t wander off.”

Yuri rolled his eyes.  “Yes, Flynn.”

A few minutes later, Flynn returned with a battered wooden box that he’d fetched from the dark recesses of his closet.  “If you’re bored, you can play with these.”  He held the box out and flipped the lid.

Yuri’s eyes lit up.  “You still have the army?”  Dozens of shabby tin knights filled the box.  

Flynn still recalled long nights with Yuri meticulously setting up regiments across their bedroom.  He’d barely played with them since Yuri disappeared, though.  It just wasn’t the same on his own, and by the time he’d stopped being constantly upset, he’d outgrown them.  “I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out.  There’s space on the floor in here if you promise to keep quiet.”

“I will!”

Yuri rushed to the rug with the box, leaving Flynn in peace.  Flynn watched him excitedly pull the knights out and begin setting them up, and then got back to work.

True to his word, Yuri kept the volume down.  Obviously, it was impossible for an eight-year-old to both play and be silent at the same time, but he put in a valiant effort to not bother Flynn.  While Yuri acted out epic battles between soldiers and monsters (mugs, pens, and crumpled balls of paper borrowed from Flynn’s desk), Flynn concentrated on finishing the day’s work. He managed to get a lot done despite the susurration of whispered battle and the occasional under-his-breath explosion (Flynn faintly recalled it being an accepted fact that if you kill a monster in a cool enough fashion, it would explode).

Flynn stared at a paper.  It was a supply request, and he really didn’t want to deal with it at the moment.  It was going to take a lot of math and a lot of comparing the resources of all the brigades in the area to figure out precisely what this brigade actually needed, and he just didn’t have the energy to work it out.  The windows were open and thick, stale air seared the back of his neck.  His desk cast a long shadow across the floor as the sun lowered.  Theoretically, the temperature should be dropping soon but the sun obviously hadn’t gotten that memo.  

“Arrrrgh!” Yuri whisper-screamed. “Oh no, he’s been hit!  I’ll save you, Captain!  Rrrrargh!  Ahhh, it’s coming!”

The pen slipped with Flynn’s damp fingers and he rested his sweating face on his fist.  It was these damn windows.  In the other seasons, the massive windows in the commandant’s office gave him a lovely view and plenty of natural light, but in the summer they were nothing but a gateway for heatstroke.  He tugged at the collar of his uniform and analyzed the monster battle Yuri was passionately enacting.  

“Your right flank is wide open,” he said idly.

Yuri looked up from the twisted mass of paper that was terrorizing the knights.  “Huh?”

“There.”  Flynn pointed.  “There’s another monster off to the right, isn’t there?  But all your knights are facing the first one.  If the other attacked, many of them would be killed before being able to change position.”

Yuri stared at his army and then, expression locked in a deadly seriousness only children can reach, carefully repositioned the knights along the right.  “Is that better?”

“Better, but move the pikes to the front line.”

“Uh… which one is a pike again?  Is it this one?”

“No, that’s a mace.  The pike is… oh, here, let me show you.”  Flynn left his desk behind and kneeled on the rug with Yuri.  He picked up a tin soldier and held it out.  “This is a pike.”

“I thought that one was a spear?”

“No, a spear is a lot shorter than this.  These guys are good at taking on cavalry or monsters significantly larger than humans.  But, since their weapons are so long, they should be on the front rows so they don’t stab the knight in front of them.”

“Oh, I see!  Boy, you really learned your stuff, huh?”

Flynn helped Yuri rearrange his troops.  “I picked up a few things, yes.”

“Well duh, since you’re the commandant now.  That means you’re the best knight of all.”

Flynn had to smile at his earnestness.  “Well, I don’t know about the best.  There were political reasons I was given the job, and it all happened under special circumstances, and…” Yuri wasn’t listening anymore.  

“I’ll be the monster.”  Yuri grabbed a particularly large mug.  “You fight it off with the pike people!”

Flynn reached for the nearest soldier.  “Ok.”  Work could wait.  After all, he had an imminent monster attack to deal with.

When the room was finally beginning to cool off, one of the knights died in a particularly dramatic fashion.  The mug-monster rolled over him, flipped him into the air, and then caught him in the certain-death-pit of its exposed stomach.  This caused the knight to explode, obviously, for which Flynn supplied a satisfactory mouth explosion noise.  

A silence followed the climax of that long battle.  Flynn spent it watching Yuri, who spent it watching the knight lying in the mug.  He was the one who broke the silence.  

“Did you bury your mom?”

Flynn faltered at the unexpected question.  “Huh?  I… yes, she was buried.  Why?”

“‘Cause you didn’t bury your dad, ‘cause he was really hurt and torn up and stuff.  But if you buried your mom, then it means her body was still all together, right?  So she wasn’t really hurt.  But she wasn’t really old either.  So how come she died?”

“Well… she got sick.  Sometimes young people get really sick and they die.”

“Why didn’t you get a doctor to fix her?”

Flynn folded his legs under himself and got comfortable; this was going to be a complicated conversation.  “Sometimes there’s nothing doctors can do.”  And sometimes the quality of healthcare you could get depended on how much you could afford, which in Flynn’s family’s case was not very much.

“Are you gonna die, too?”

Flynn nodded slowly.  “Someday, yes.”

“When?”

“I don’t know.  Nobody knows when they’ll die, but I plan on it being a long time from now.”

Yuri’s face was still filled with worry.  “What if you get sick like your mom did?”

“The best doctors in the world are employed at the castle, and Estellise has very powerful healing magic.  If I get sick, I’m sure they’ll be able to heal me.”

“Good.  I don’t want you to die.”

Flynn chuckled a little.  “I’m not looking forward to it myself.”


	5. Living Arrangements

Yuri still struggled to comprehend how much food was on the table. There was a pile of sliced roast beef, a bowl of mashed potatoes fluffy as clouds, a basket with a bakery's worth of bread, salads so green and colourful they could have come from a painting, and more sauces than Yuri knew what to do with. This was a complete feast, and yet Flynn and Estellise reacted like it was just a typical weeknight meal. Even more amazingly, it  _was_  for them.

They sat at the dining table in Flynn's apartment on soft, leather-bound chairs. There was so much silverware it boggled Yuri's mind, and he'd stared at the array of forks, knives, and spoons in utter confusion until Flynn took away all but one of each and told him not to worry about it. He drank milk from a crystal cup that glittered under the small chandelier, but even that wasn't much compared to the elegant wine glasses Flynn and Estellise had (they wouldn't let him try the wine).

Yuri spent the entire meal concentrated on eating. Flynn and Estellise were talking about work stuff and Yuri couldn't bring himself to pay attention. Besides, it was going to take a lot of effort to finish his plate. Near the end of the meal, Yuri rolled a baby carrot around a clear space on his plate as he built up the energy to eat it. Determined to get it over with, he jabbed his fork into it and took a deep breath.

Estellise looked away from Flynn. "Oh, Yuri, don't stuff yourself."

"What?"

"Don't keep eating if you're full."

Yuri lowered the fork slightly. "I haven't finished yet."

Flynn, who'd put his knife and fork down several minutes ago despite the potatoes still on his plate, said, "It's ok, Yuri. We can just send the leftovers back and the kitchen will take care of it."

"But your mom always said it was really wasteful not to finish your plate."

Flynn frowned as he shifted his weight. "Well… yes, but remember that my mom had to work very hard to afford food. We don't have to worry about that here, so it's more important not to make yourself sick by overeating."

"If you say so." Yuri stared at the food left on his plate. It just felt  _wrong_  to not eat it, but at the same time, his stomach really was full.

"So, Yuri," Flynn said, "I started making inquiries today about potential adoptive homes for you. There's nothing concrete yet, but there was some interest."

Thoughts of food vanished from his mind and he whipped his head up from the plate. "Wait, what? Adoptive homes? I thought I was staying here?"

"You can stay here for now, but I'm talking about long term."

"Yeah,  _here_. What's wrong with staying here?"

"Weren't you complaining today about how bored you were?"

"Well… yeah, but that doesn't mean I want to go live with someone else! Who? Someone in the lower quarter?"

Flynn shook his head. "No, I'm looking at wealthier couples in the royal quarter or the upper end of the public quater."

Yuri's fist hit the table hard enough to make the silverware rattle. "You want to send me off to live with some rich people?!"

"I want to find you loving, supporting parents who can afford to give you everything you need."

Yuri stuck out his chin; he couldn't  _believe_  Flynn was even suggesting this. "I never had parents before. Why do I need them now?"

Flynn was clearly holding in frustration. "Because you shouldn't have to grow up an orphan. I'm going to find you a nice family - they won't be corrupt, snooty nobles. Nice rich people exist."

Yuri highly doubted there were many of them. "I don't even need a family. I can take care of myself. I'm already almost teenager."

"You're eight!"

"Yeah! So I'll be thirteen in five years, and I was born eight years ago, so I'm more than halfway there." See, he didn't need stupid adoptive parents. He could already do math.

"You wouldn't be able to live on your own even if you were thirteen."

"Could too!"

"Could not!"

They glared at each other across the table, both stubbornly daring the other to flinch first. Estellise awkwardly glanced between them and fiddled with her hands on the table.

"Um…" she said, "maybe we should try to talk about this rationally. Flynn, you should discuss living arrangements with Yuri before deciding anything. And Yuri, I think it would be wonderful if Flynn finds a loving family to adopt you. I always wished I had parents, so you shouldn't turn down this chance."

Flynn relaxed back into his chair and tried to calm his face. "Right. I'm sorry. We can talk about this, Yuri. I wouldn't send you to live with someone if you weren't completely happy with them."

Yuri, though, wasn't ready to give in. "Fine!" The chair skidded as he stood. "Give me away! I know when I'm not wanted!"

"Yuri, it's not like that at all. I'm trying to do what's best for you!"

Yuri whirled around and stomped to Flynn's bedroom. "You grew up to be such a jerk, Flynn!" He slammed the door behind him.

He heard Flynn call, "That's not even your room!"

Yuri didn't care, though. He didn't have a bedroom of his own to slam the door of, and sometimes you just needed to storm off and smash a door to feel better. He clambered onto Flynn's enormous bed and threw himself onto the pillows.

Stupid. Flynn was stupid for wanting to get rid of him, and Yuri was stupid for thinking he could stay here forever. What he  _wanted_  was for things to go back to normal and go back to living with Mrs. Scifo in his own neighbourhood. He couldn't stay with her, obviously, but he'd like to go back to the lower quarter. Yeah, life was tough there, but it was  _home_. Flynn should go home and live there and share his money and food and clothes with everyone else and then things wouldn't be so tough! But even that wasn't going to happen, so as a last resort he could handle staying here in the castle with Flynn. Even Estellise was nice and he could be happy here.

Flynn didn't want him to stay, though. It made sense; Flynn had a super busy job and he thought Yuri needed to be taken care of all the time. Flynn was making the Empire a better place and that was important. Yuri didn't want to get in the way and he didn't want to go live with some rich strangers, so he'd have to go live on his own. There were plenty of places in the lower quarter he could live, and maybe he could take some things from the castle just to get himself set up. When Flynn came to find him, he'd see how independent and grown-up Yuri was and realize he didn't need to find a family for him. It would be perfect.

* * *

 

After his bedroom door slammed, Flynn leaned forward and rubbed his forehead. "I'm sorry."

"Huh? What are you apologizing for?"

"I was shouting childishly." He raised his head and sighed. "Talking to Yuri sometimes makes me feel like I'm eight years old again."

"It's ok. I think you're handling this pretty well considering how surreal it is."

"I'll say," Flynn muttered. It was still so hard to believe this really was the Yuri he'd lost. "Do you think I'm doing the right thing? I mean, what right do I have to decide how he lives? I'm not even related to him. We were friends when I was a kid, but does that give me the right to tell him who his parents are going to be?"

"Um…" Estellise bit her lip in thought. "I think you have to. As much as I love the idea of freedom of choice, I don't think that freedom necessarily applies to small children. I know if I could do whatever I wanted when I was eight, I would have eaten nothing but cake and run away to start a pony farm. Kids need an adult to make them go to classes and eat their vegetables and things like that. So, I think you're right for deciding these things for him. After all, he doesn't have anyone else to do that."

"Yes, I suppose you're right." He just hoped he wasn't agreeing with her only to ease his conscience. "I had to work  _so_  hard to make something of myself. He shouldn't have to if he doesn't need to."

"It's scary to imagine complete strangers being declared your parents. He's probably really nervous about that."

"Plus, Yuri has always been fiercely independant. I understand  _why_  he's unhappy, but in the long term he'd be so much better off in a stable family."

"I bet he'll understand and appreciate it once everything is settled. But what about sending him home? Have you told him we're going to try that?"

Flynn turned his eyes to the door. "No…. I don't want to get his hopes up. It's a very small chance."

Estellise nodded. "Yes, that makes sense. Well, for what it's worth, I think you're doing a really good job!"

He smiled at her. "Heh, thank you very much. Now what was that about you wanting a pony farm?"

She blushed and hunched her shoulders. "I was eight. I thought they were cute."

"I could buy you a pony, if you want." He had to admit, he still had a bit of a thrill at the idea that he was now wealthy enough that he  _could_  buy someone a pony if he wanted to.

She giggled. "I don't know what I'd even do with it. Besides, I'm the empress. I could have a whole stable of ponies if I wanted to!"

"That you could."

"And I'd name them all after my favourite characters."

Still slightly distracted by thoughts of Yuri, he said. "Of course you would."

She pouted. "What's that supposed to mean?"

This was one of the crossroads where a conversation could either end swimmingly or drowning-ly. Flynn saw the riptide coming and put on his most charming smile. "That you're endearingly passionate about literature."

Estellise gave him a skeptical look, but seemed to accept this save. "Do you want me to stay over tonight? I mean…" she glanced over her shoulder at the door, "do you think it would be awkward with him here?"

"You know I'm always fond of your company. We can have a quiet night." He rose to his feet and pressed his fists against the table. "Now, though, I'd better go talk to Yuri before he sulks all night. Or, worse, climbs out the window in a bid for freedom." Based on what he remembered of Yuri, the latter option wasn't entirely unbelievable.

Flynn knocked on the door, feeling slightly silly for knocking on his own bedroom, and entered after Yuri failed to respond for ten seconds. Yuri sat crosslegged on the bed with a pillow hugged to his chest, his chin resting on the top.

His eyes turned up as Flynn entered and wrinkled his nose. "What do  _you_ want? Is it time to auction me off to the highest bidder already?"

Flynn sat on the side of the bed. For a long moment, he said nothing. It took him some time to pull his thoughts together and figure out how he wanted to approach this. Yuri had been his friend and in his memories they were always equals. Flipping that around took some getting used to, and no doubt it was even harder for Yuri, who'd hung out with child-Flynn only a day ago. When he'd finally settled on a course of conversation, he said, "Do you remember that time we 'made' bread when we were five?"

Yuri dropped his disgruntlement in surprise. "Huh?"

"You know, when we found those weeds that we were  _sure_  were wheat."

"Oh, yeah, I remember. So we picked them all and brought them home and asked your mom to show us how bread gets made from wheat."

"Then we put them in that big bowl and ground them up with some salt and pepper, poured the mess into a pan, and stuck it in the oven."

Yuri laughed. "We wanted to sit and watch it cook but your mom made us go play outside. When we came back in an hour later, there was fresh bread in the oven!"

Flynn smiled at the memory. "We were so proud."

"I know it wasn't real, though." Yuri pulled his arms up and rested them on top of the pillow so it nearly bent double. "She just want to the bakery and bought a fresh loaf, then put it in the oven to trick us."

Of course Yuri remembered. It had only been three years ago for him. "We really thought we were professional bakers for a while, though. We didn't figure it out until Dad spilled the beans when we were seven."

Yuri cracked a smile. "Man, you shoulda seen your face. You were so betrayed!"

"You were, too!"

"Was not!"

"Were too! You thought we'd really baked it, too."

Yuri folded his arms. "Maybe, but that's just 'cause you said we did and I trusted you."

This was quickly going off topic so Flynn reeled it in. "But we really thought we knew how it worked when we were five, didn't we? Three years later, you think you were pretty silly for believing that, right?"

Yuri shrugged. "I guess so."

"You learned stuff in those years. You learned more about how the world works. You can make much more informed decisions now than when you were five, right?"

"Yeah."

"So, do you think it's possible that in the thirteen years I've been alive longer than you, I've learned a lot, too?"

Yuri's face froze as he realized he'd been caught in agreeing with Flynn. "Well… uh… I guess… maybe…."

"Someday when you're twenty-two, you'll know all sorts of things and no one will tell you how you have to live your life. But for now, maybe you can take my advice? You said you trusted me about the bread… so can you trust me about this?"

Yuri squirmed to find a way out of this. "But why do I have to go live with strangers?"

Promising him he'd like it wasn't going to get anywhere. "Sometimes we have to do things we don't want so that we can become stronger. Like practicing with a sword. All the practice is really boring, but you have to do it because it's good for you."

"Are you good with a sword?"

"I like to think so."

"If you make me go live with other people, can I still come back here and you can teach me how to sword fight?"

Flynn smiled. "Of course. And I won't make you live with people you won't like. I really want to find a good family for you."

Yuri moaned. "But why do I  _need_  one? You don't have one, either, and you turned out ok!"

"Yes, but it was very hard. After I lost my mom, I very nearly starved on the streets. I care about you, so I don't want you to suffer like I did."

"But I wouldn't suffer. I could handle it."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. I'm tougher than you."

Flynn folded his arms. "Now where did you get that idea?"

"Ha! I've always been!"

"You think so?" Flynn pulled himself the rest of the way onto the the bed and tackled Yuri. He pinned him to the mattress and then pulled the blanket over Yuri to trap him below.

"Ah! Get off me!" Yuri tried to kick Flynn through the blanket, but Flynn held it down too tight.

Flynn laughed as Yuri struggled. "Who's tougher now, huh?"

"No fair! You're bigger than me!"

Yuri kicked and squirmed for nearly a minute before Flynn released him. The blanket was pulled back and Yuri emerged, tousle-haired and red-faced. Flynn smiled innocently at him.

Yuri shoved him as hard as he could. "Jerk."

* * *

 

The next morning, Flynn kissed Estellise in the doorway before she headed to her own apartment to get ready for the day. Flynn turned back to the kitchen, but there was a pair of eyes staring at him. Oh. Yuri had woken up. "Good morning."

"Hi."

"Are you hungry?"

"Yeah."

"I'm having cereal." He reached the kitchen and fumbled in the cupboard. "Do you want some?"

"Sure."

Flynn pulled out two bowls and busied himself with pouring the cereal. He had just started to pour the milk when Yuri asked a question.

"Did you and Estellise have sex?"

The glass pitcher clinked as Flynn nearly dropped it and splashed milk on the counter. His head snapped up and he gaped at Yuri's inquiring eyes. "Did we - what?"

"Sex. Is that why you were sleeping in the same bed last night?"

"N-no - we didn't - we were just sleeping. What do you know about sex?!"

Yuri shrugged. "I dunno, I was hoping you could tell me."

Flynn slowly rested the pitcher on the counter and reached for a cloth to wipe up the milk. "What makes you think we had sex if you don't even know what it is?"

"Well, last year I was talking about how weird it is that rich people sleep in the same bed if they can afford their own. And then Roger said it was so they could have sex."

Flynn nodded slowly, vaguely recalling this conversation. Roger had lived on their street but was four or five years older than them. He remembered the heated discussion he'd had with Yuri afterwards as they tried to work out what a 'sex' was and why grown-ups would want one while they were sleeping.

"Roger refused to explain because he said we were too little.  _I_  think he didn't actually know. But now you're a grown-up who was sleeping in the same bed, so does that mean you know what it is?"

"I… yes, I know what it is…."

"Cool! So, what is it?"

Flynn just stared at him. Yuri was still too young for this, wasn't he? He was only eight. Flynn hadn't known when he was Yuri's age; he distinctly recalled his mom giving him a talk a year or two after Yuri vanished. What was he even supposed to say? He had to go to work soon. "It's… well… you know how people kiss and hug when they're in love?"

Yuri nodded. "Yeah."

"Sex is something like that. When adults love each other a lot, they do it together."

"Do you do it?"

Were his cheeks actually bright red or was he overestimating the warmth? "S-sometimes…." He tried to concentrate on fishing spoons out of the drawer.

"How does it work? I mean… what  _is_  it?"

Flynn stuck the spoons in the bowls and carried one to Yuri. "I'll tell you when you're older; eat your cereal."

"But-"

Flynn stuck the spoon in his mouth and then walked back to his own breakfast. Before Yuri could ask anything else, he abruptly changed the subject. "Some friends of mine are going to be in town today. One of them, Rita, is a very smart mage. I was thinking she could help explain how you got here. Can you come to my office around ten to meet them?"

Yuri nodded. "Sure. What should I do until then?"

Flynn shrugged. "Whatever you want. Just don't leave the castle grounds and don't bother anyone."

Yuri rolled his eyes. "Yes, Flynn."

* * *

 

Yuri managed to keep himself entertained that morning. The castle was dull, but this time he had a friend. Repede had joined him, and racing along the barren halls was much more fun when he had someone to race against. Repede chased him down the halls, nipping at his heels and barking all the way.

When an annoyed councilwoman scolded them for making noise, Yuri braved the heat and took Repede out to the garden where they were free to run and shout as much as they liked. Yuri raced after Repede until the dug whirled around, woofed, and pounced on him. Yuri fell to the grass with a shriek and a laugh and then struggled to get out from under the dog licking his face.

"R-repede!" He tried to cover his face with his arms. "Stop, you're crushing me!"

When Repede finally let him go, Yuri spat on the grass and wiped his mouth to get rid of the dog slobber. Then he fell back to the grass and relished the soft carpet. Repede lay on his side, belly exposed and panting.

"You're a good dog, Repede." Yuri lay still and felt beads of sweat dripping down his neck along his hairline. The weight of the intense heat pressed him into the grass and he felt like he could lie here forever.

But he couldn't, because Flynn was sending him away. He was going to load him off on some rich family and then Yuri was supposed to live with them forever, or at least until he was an adult, which was pretty much the same thing. Flynn said Yuri should listen to him because he had more experience and could make smarter choices.

Yuri understood that and it made sense for Flynn to be smarter than him now, but Flynn wanted him to have this family because it would be 'good for him'. The question, though, was whether what Flynn thought Yuri should grow up to be was what  _Yuri_  wanted. Flynn probably wanted Yuri to grow up to be a fancy knight like him and live in a castle with servants and stuff. The food was nice, but every time Yuri felt the texture of his clothes he felt like a traitor to his home. He didn't want to grow up as some fancy noble. He would be better off taking care of himself back home.

Repede climbed to his feet and headed toward the door. He had the right idea; it was too hot to stay outside any longer. Yuri got to his knees, wiped sweat from his brow, and then followed Repede. The cool interior of the castle was heavenly and for a moment he dreaded the idea of going back to the lower quarter where there was hardly any relief from temperatures both hot and cold.

Back inside, Yuri wandered down a hall. He passed an ornate vase that probably cost more than Flynn's mom's house and statues that must be worth their weight in gald. There was so much money just sitting around in the castle, and it wasn't helping anyone!

He tried a door and found yet another meeting room. Why did the castle even need this many rooms? If someone wiped this room from existence, he was certain no one would even notice.

"Look at all this stuff," Yuri said to Repede when he stopped in front of a desk. There was a small figurine of a winged horse covered in gold and silver powder box encrusted with jewels. Yuri picked up the box and found a velvet-lined interior. His reflection stared back at him from the gleaming sapphire on the lid. He turned and held the box out to Repede. "How much do you think this is worth?"

Repede sniffed and then barked.

"Yeah, probably like a billion gald or something." If he sold this, he'd never have to worry about money ever again in his life. He could buy food for the other people in the lower quarter, too. It was just sitting here in an unused room; nobody in the castle had any use for it. They probably wouldn't even notice it was gone.

"Shh," Yuri whispered to Repede and slipped the box in his pocket. It wasn't actually  _stealing_ -stealing. The government was supposed to help people, and they weren't, so he'd just speed it up a little.

Still, he crept out of the room and looked around the hall when he left, just to check that no one had seen him leave. Yuri and Repede left that hallway and set off to find the biggest, emptiest room in the castle. There would be plenty of room to run around inside without the heat making him feel sick.

After turning a few corners, a voice called after him, "Excuse me! Master Yuri!"

Yuri whirled around and quickly hid the guilt that had rushed across his face. Had he been caught?! His hand pressed against the lump in his pants pocket. "What?"

The knight hurried down the hall to catch up with him and through the holes in the helmet Yuri saw a smile. "Aw, don't worry, you're not in trouble or anything. The commandant asked me to find you and send you on to his office. He said he wants to see you."

"Ack! It's ten already? I gotta go." He took off running and called back, "Thanks, mister!"

It took him a few minutes to reach Flynn's office, and then he burst in without knocking. "Sorry!" Yuri stood in the middle of the office, panting and still sweaty from expending all his energy outside.

There were three new people standing around Flynn's desk. A tall woman with weird blue hair, a shorter woman with red hair and crossed arms, and a teenager with messy brown hair. "Hi!" the teenager said. "You're Yuri, right?"

Yuri straightened up and got closer to the desk. "Yeah. Who're you?"

"I'm Karol!" He smiled and pointed to the short woman, "And this is Rita, and that's Judith."

"Yuri," Flynn said, "these are my friends. We met last year during the times I joined Estellise on her journey."

Yuri waved at the trio. "Yo."

"Is he really from the past?" Judith peered down at him.

"So it would seem," Flynn said. "I have no explanation. I know he's the Yuri I knew as a child, and obviously he hasn't aged at the same rate I did."

"Whoa…" Karol said. "This is crazy. It's like Yormgen all over again."

Yuri frowned. "Yorm-what?"

"Yeah, but this is even more screwed up," Rita said. "At least with Yormgen the people from the past were contained in their own little bubble, not running around in the real world."

Judith nodded. "It's certainly very peculiar."

Yuri looked between the group with increasing confusion. "What are you guys even talking about?"

Karol smiled at him. "Oops, sorry. We were talking about a weird town we found last year."

Flynn folded his arms on his desk. "Rita, just before Yuri got here, I asked you about the mages in the lower quarter that summer. Do you know anything?"

Rita shifted her weight. "Not really. I was practically a baby when that was going on so it's not like I had any insider knowledge. There are mages in Zaphias, though. They might have some information. I can go check it out."

"I'm quite interested myself," Judith said. "Mind if I come along?"

"I wanna come, too," Yuri put in and then looked to Flynn. "I can go, right?" He was already getting bored at the castle, and checking out the mages sounded cool.

"Go ahead." Flynn nodded once. "If they have something to do with how you got here, seeing them might jar your memory."

"Let's all go!" Karol said with a smile. "It'll be cool to see the Zaphias mages."

Rita just rolled her eyes. "Fine, just don't bother the mages or anything."


	6. Time Travel

Yuri figured mages ought to work in a mysterious wizard tower, or at least some place with domes and spires. The Zaphias mage headquarters was disappointingly bland and could have passed for any other business building. This was really a missed opportunity.

"Is this it?" he said when they stepped inside and found a boring lobby. The floor was tiled, there were some potted plants in the corner, and the walls were a boring beige. "This place is lame."

Rita gave him a look. "What were you expecting?"

"I dunno, something  _magical_."

Karol grinned. "Yeah, that would be cool! Aspio looked pretty mage-y at least. It had all sorts of books and glowing lights."

Yuri nodded. "Yeah, that's what you need here! Rita, you should get the mages to buy glowing lights and then cover the walls with books and weird symbols and  _then_  it will look like a place for magic."

Rita smacked the back of his head. "Shut up."

"Hey!" Yuri rubbed the back of his head while Karol snickered.

"You guys stay here. I'll go ask about who was running those experiments that summer." Rita stalked off and Yuri sneered after her.

"Don't take it personally," Karol said. "I'm just glad she slapped someone else for once."

After a few minutes, Rita returned and guided them down a hallway. "Good news. The guy who ran the program is still working here."

"Bet he's a bad mage if he's stuck in this boring place and not Aspio," Yuri grumbled.

The other three shared an awkward silence and then Judith said, "Actually… the entire city of Aspio was destroyed last year. Most mages are now based out of Halure."

Yuri glanced between them to see if they were joking. "What? No way. A whole city couldn't just get wiped out."

Karol hung his head. "It's true. There was this ancient city beneath it and when it rose into the sky, it crushed Aspio."

"A city in the sky? What?"

"It's a long story." Rita stopped in front of a door and banged on it. "We'll tell you later." She barged into the room before the resident could invite them.

Beyond the door was an office. A round man with rounder glasses was halfway to the door when they entered. "Hello," he said. "Can I help you?"

"Hey. I'm Rita Mordio. I want to ask you about a project you ran about thirteen years ago."

" _The_  Rita Mordio? I'd be honoured to share my research with you! I'm George Herbert, by the way. Please sit down."

He hurried to his desk and gestured to the pair of chairs across from it. Rita and Karol sat, while Judith lurked behind Rita and Yuri held back near Judith. His eyes kept going to Herbert as he struggled to place the man in his memory. His stomach felt queasy and he instinctively stuck close to Judith. It was like Cumore all over again; he couldn't place  _why_  the man freaked him out so much, but a deep part of him wanted to run out of here and never see Herbert again.

"So," Herbert folded his hands on his desk with a friendly smile, "what do you want to know?"

Rita jumped right to the point. "Thirteen years ago, you led a research project in the lower quarter. Can you tell me what that was about?"

"Ah, yes! The Outbreaker Project. Such a shame it never worked out."

"Outbreaker?" Judith asked.

Herbert nodded. "That's right. Some mages investigating the blastia in Mantaic ventured into the Sands of Kogorh. They were accosted by a strange creature that they claimed was able to pull them through time and into the night, and then back again. Sadly, only two of the team survived the encounter, but they returned to our lab with a sample of the creature's tissue. We were attempting to harness the beast's power of time manipulation."

Karol's face lit up. "So you guys were trying to invent time travel!"

He looked back at Yuri and they shared a look that said,  _looks like it worked_.

"That's correct," Herbert said. "We managed to get it to work, too. But… only for inanimate tissues. The Outbreaker pulls its prey ten to fifteen hours into the future, enough time to change the light and throw the victim into confusion. We tested it with stones and they successfully materialized in our work area about twelve hours after putting them in."

"That's amazing!" Karol gaped at him. "How come I never heard about this?"

"Because it was ultimately useless. Sending objects to the future isn't that useful, especially when we couldn't pin down an exact arrival time within that ten to fifteen hour window. We couldn't get them to appear in an exact place, either, so we'd be working and then out of nowhere a rock would fall on someone's head. Very frustrating."

"So is that all you ever put in?" Rita asked. "Rocks?"

Herbert frowned. "There was one other test… we had reached the limit of what we could learn from rocks, so we decided it was time for a, uh, live tissue trial."

Judith frowned. "Just what kind of 'live tissue'?"

Herbert cleared his throat. "A dog. It was a dog. I've always felt rather horrible about what we did to it. The poor thing was just a stray off the street. We led it into the portal and then waited for it to reappear hours later, but… it never did. I feared all we'd get was a corpse, but we didn't even get that. I can only assume time swallowed that poor thing up."

"And the dog is the only living thing you sent through?" Judith asked.

Herbert nodded. "We tried sending plants through. The dead ones showed up fine, the ones still living in a pot vanished. I can only assume that whatever we had set up was impassable for living tissue. By the end of the summer, it became clear that we weren't going to send a human through time and our funding ran out. It was a very interesting summer, to be sure. I only wish we had more promising results. Why are you interested?"

Rita shrugged. "Time travel is an interesting subject. Anything else you can tell us?"

Herbert drummed his fingers on the desk. "Like what? I could give you all the papers on how it worked. Perhaps you could figure out how to get a person through time."

"Hm… yeah, give me your folders. I'll take a look."

It took Herbert a few minutes to gather all his files from deep in a cabinet and then the party left him in peace. Yuri couldn't hurry out of there fast enough. In the hallway he took a deep breath and tried to fight off the weight in his chest.

"Yuri?"

He jumped when a hand rested on his shoulder. "I'm ok!" He whirled around and looked up at Judith. "I'm fine."

"Are you ok?" Karol asked. "You look kinda nervous."

Yuri shuffled his feet and glanced at the closed door to Herbert's office. "I… I don't like that guy. He gives me the creeps."

"Is it something he said?" Judith asked.

Yuri shook his head. "No… I feel like I've met him before or something, but I can't remember. Argh," he clutched his head and tried to pull the memories out of the corners of his mind. It was like the horrible, stomach-aching fear that arrived when thinking about a scary story, except he couldn't remember what the scary story was. "I just… don't trust him."

They walked together back to the street. On the way, Rita said, "You know… it's actually pretty likely he was involved in how you got here. Your memories got erased but if something traumatic happened, it might be deep-rooted enough to remain. I can't believe I'm saying this, but you might be on to something."

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

"That I don't take theories from snot-nosed little kids seriously very often."

"Who are you calling a little kid?!"

"If your age is still a single digit, you're pretty little as far as I'm concerned."

Karol looked to her with a smile. "Cool, so I don't count!"

Rita whacked the side of his head. "I'll make an exception for you."

* * *

Yuri felt ill at ease for the rest of the day. Rita went off to study while Karol and Judith took Yuri for a walk around the city. He found it hard to focus even while they told him thrilling stories about their adventures as part of the guild Altosk. Herbert and his time travel experiments  _had_  to be the reason he was here, but he'd only sent a dog through. How had Yuri gotten here? The blackout of his memory between running off to play and waking up in the castle was so frustrating. He wished he could punch his brain.

In the evening, they met Flynn and Estellise for dinner at a restaurant. Yuri spent the meal quietly eating his grilled cheese sandwich while the others chatted about… grown up stuff or something. Yuri wasn't really listening. He finally started paying attention when he heard his name.

"He must have something to do with Yuri," Rita was saying. "I don't think it's a coincidence that he was planning to send something around twelve hours into the future and now Yuri is thirteen years ahead."

Flynn nodded. "Right. You think the scale was off?"

"It worked for rocks," Karol said, "but not anything alive. So maybe it takes a different amount of power or something to transport living things."

"Hm…" Judith put a bent finger to her chin. "Do you think if we went to the site of the experiment, we'd find old smashed pots and dying plants that appeared years after the study ended?"

"Could be," Rita said.

Flynn looked down the table to Yuri. "Are you sure you don't remember anything, Yuri?"

He shrugged. "I think that mage guy was involved, but I dunno how."

"He said he only ever tested it on a dog, right?" Estellise said. "So how did Yuri get involved?"

Flynn frowned and swirled a sauce around on his plate as he thought. "Well… knowing Yuri, there's a distinct possibility he snuck into some place and poked his nose where he shouldn't have."

Yuri folded his arms and glared. "Are you saying this is my fault?"

"I'm saying that I specifically remember you saying we should sneak into the mage's building and that you didn't get here by staying out."

"Maybe I was  _kidnapped_. You don't know."

"Sure, maybe it was that."

Yuri had a feeling that something bad  _had_  happened. Why else would he be so freaked out by some mage? He couldn't have just snuck in after hours and tripped into the future. He must have met Herbert before, and he must have done something to make Yuri so frightened of him. He hated the idea of bringing this up, though. He wasn't supposed to get scared of people like some little kid.

After dinner, Judith, Rita, and Karol took off to spend the night at an inn while Yuri followed Estellise and Flynn back to the castle. Yuri looked away when Flynn kissed her goodnight, because that was so gross, and then they returned to Flynn's apartment.

"What are we gonna do tonight?" Yuri asked as Flynn kicked off his shoes.

"I have some reports to read and you're going to bed."

"Whaaaat? Not yet!"

"It's almost nine."

"But I'm not tired." He ignored how heavy his eyes felt. He couldn't go to bed yet! If he was in bed, that meant lying on the couch in the front room while Flynn was in the back and if anyone came in, he'd be really exposed. Not that he was  _expecting_  someone, but what if that creepy mage came after him? And Cumore was still in the building and he was scary, too. Plus, with the barriers gone, who knew what kind of horrible monsters could get in and lurk around the castle. It was  _logical_  to be concerned, and it showed how mature and reasonable he was to think it through like this.

"Once you lie down, you'll get tired. Go brush your teeth and get ready for bed."

"But-"

"Go to bed."

"I'm not ti-" a yawn overtook him. "Ti-i-erd. Ok, maybe a  _little_  tired." He hefted a dramatic sigh. "Fine, I'll go to bed but only because I'm feeling a little sleepy and not because you told me to."

Flynn just wore a mild smile. "As long as you go to bed."

Despite Yuri's reluctance, he did end up going to bed. Flynn disappeared into his bedroom and Yuri curled up on the couch. He was asleep before the lamplight from Flynn's room disappeared from under the door.

He had no idea what time it was when his eyes flashed open with a pant of breath. Sweat dampened his neck and hairline and it was only partly to do with how warm the room was. Even worse, he was pretty sure the moisture around his eyes wasn't sweat.

The memories from his dream were disjointed. George Herbert's face swam through the fading images. There had been something bright, too - so bright that everything around it seemed like blackness. He remembered kicking, pulling, and shouting, along with fear - a fear so intense it still thumped through his heart now that he was awake.

And the thing was, these fuzzy memories didn't feel like they'd come from the dream. The dream kicked them into his mind, but these memories carried too many traces of the smell of sweat, the scrape of his shoes on a dirty floor, and the sting of trying to break out of someone's grip.

Yuri swallowed another gulp of air, still trembling. Before he could stop himself, he leapt off the bed and dashed to Flynn's room. Even the dark shadows in the corners of the room threatened to hold enemies. He ran to the bed and clambered on, pulling his legs up quickly before anything lurking underneath could grab his ankles. He crawled to Flynn's side and shook his shoulder. He started to hiss his name, but Flynn reacted first.

Flynn's arm whipped out and smashed into Yuri's chest, knocking him back. He bolted up. "Who's - Yuri? Oh, gosh, I'm sorry, are you all right?"

Yuri lay on his back, panting. He was still shaken from remembered fear and this shock hadn't helped. "I'm… ok."

Flynn rolled on his side. "I'm sorry. I know I have enemies. In the split-second of waking I thought someone was attacking me. You're not hurt, are you?"

Yuri shook his head and sat up on his knees. "No. I'm ok."

"What do you need?" He frowned and analyzed Yuri's face. "What's wrong?"

"I… just, well - I had a dream and I think I remembered some things. But they're not… they weren't happy things and I thought, well, there are bad people and what if Flynn is in danger all by himself so I thought I'd come check on you…."

"You remembered how you got here?"

Yuri shifted his weight and fiddled his hands. "Not really. Just… like… flashes of things. Maybe if I go back to sleep I'll remember more…." But he didn't want to. The thought of going back to that couch and sleeping alone in the dark to let more memories come to him made his skin crawl.

"I see. So… do you want to stay here so you can keep an eye on me, just in case?"

Yuri nodded. He  _could_  go back to the couch, but that would be irresponsible because Flynn might be in danger, right? Yeah, he needed someone to watch him, just in case.

"Ok." Flynn yawned and stretched out on his side of the bed. "We can talk more about what you remembered tomorrow."

Flynn closed his eyes to go back to sleep and Yuri got comfortable on the other side of the bed. The mattress was so huge, it almost felt like he was on his own bed. Since it was too hot to sleep under the covers, he felt very small and exposed on the giant bare bed. He wiggled backward until he was close enough to feel Flynn's body heat against his back. The strength Flynn had shown knocking him back a few minutes ago reassured Yuri that if anyone tried to attack them, Flynn was more than powerful enough to fight them off.

Flynn's arm flopped over and wrapped around Yuri. It reminded him of the simpler nights they used to share, squeezed together on one small straw mattress. If one of them had a nightmare, the other was always there to defend them through the night. Yuri wiggled another inch closer to Flynn and finally let himself relax. Whatever terrifying monsters or people were out there, they'd be hard-pressed to get to him here.

* * *

Yuri told Flynn about his dream and memories over breakfast. Flynn was intrigued to say the least, but he didn't have time to think about it too deeply before it was time for work. Rita was still researching Herbert's files, so Yuri went off with Karol and Judith to see the city. Flynn pushed Yuri's disturbing dream to the back of his mind while working, and didn't think about it again until he told Estellise over lunch.

"It doesn't sound like he stumbled into the future by accident," she said when he finished relating the story. They were in her office this time, with a pair of crumb-covered plates pushed to the side of the desk.

"Right. At first I thought he might have been exploring and touched a portal of some sort he shouldn't have, but if his dream-inspired memories are accurate, something much more sinister must have happened."

"Mr. Herbert said the only things they ever put in were rocks, plants, and a dog."

"Yes… but I believe Mr. Herbert may have been lying."

"But he wouldn't…" Estellise hung her head. "No, I suppose I can't say that. After Ragou, I have to believe there are people who really would do such awful things to a child. What do you think happened?"

"I don't know." He folded his arms and thought. "I still don't know how Yuri ended up there, but somehow I think Herbert and the mages running the experiment forced Yuri in as a test subject. They were expecting him to reappear in about thirteen hours, but something went wrong and he came out thirteen years later instead."

"You're going to arrest him, right?"

Flynn scowled. "I'd love to, but on what charges? Unwilling time-travel? I don't know exactly what happened, I can't prove it, and it happened thirteen years ago so even if I did know what to charge him with, the statute of limitations has probably run out."

Estellise pouted. "I hate this. I hate that I'm the empress and I still can't fix everything."

"We're getting there, though. Maybe more of Yuri's memory will come back and he can give us something I can charge Herbert with."

"I sure hope so."

Flynn took a sip of water from his class. "In lighter news, I've gotten some responses about potentially adopting him. There are a few interested families. Obviously I need to do more thorough background checks, interviews, and discuss it with Yuri, but I'm confident I'll be able to find a permanent home for him in a month or so."

"That's wonderful!" A smile wiped away her frustration. "They live in Zaphias, right? I hope he can keep visiting. He's a sweet boy."

"Yes, they are. I promised him we'd still hang out so I'm sure you'll see him often."

"Unless Rita figures out how to reverse time-travel, of course. I wonder what would happen. Do you think a grown up Yuri would suddenly exist?"

Flynn rubbed his chin in thought. "That's an interesting question." He tried to imagine what an adult Yuri Lowell might be like. When they were kids, they'd said they were going to join the Knights together. Would he have followed through with that?

Estellise leaned forward with a sudden thought. "But what if Yuri goes back in time and steps on a butterfly and then the Adephagos kills us all?"

"I… beg your pardon?"

"I've read about it in books! People try to go back in time and cause one tiny change that spirals out of control and then the future is irrevocably changed."

"Oh, right, I've read stories like that. But I don't think it's the same, since that's his original time. He's not going back in time, he's… returning to the past. I think that makes a difference."

"Hm, could be. Since he's already supposed to be there, I guess he doesn't have to worry about killing his own grandfather and ceasing to exist."

"Right." Flynn nodded. "Although, do you think things would change for us? If Yuri goes home and grows up where -  _when_  - he's supposed to, would things be different here?"

"Hm… I hope not." She folded her hands around one of his. "I quite like the way things are now."

He smiled at her. "I do as well. It's something to think about, though. Maybe he would have tagged along on our journey."

Estellise's eyes gleamed as an idea sparked. "How do we know the present hasn't already been changed? If someone changes the past, we'd feel like this was how we always lived. How do we know someone hasn't already done it? What if there used to be a timeline where… where Alexei won, but someone went back and fixed it?"

"I would have to thank that person."

"And what if… maybe there was once a timeline where I'm not the empress and you're not the commandant, and we could just run off together and see the world."

Flynn pulled his hands away and patted the back of hers. "It's a nice dream. But, I'm afraid in this timeline, I have a meeting to prepare for."

Estellise sighed. "Me, too. Thank you for joining me for lunch."

"It was my pleasure. Dinner at your place tonight?"

"See you then!"

* * *

Yuri wandered down a hall in the castle. He'd had dinner at Estellise's place an hour ago, but after dessert Flynn told him he was excused to entertain himself until bedtime. Yuri had mimed a kissing face at Flynn behind Estellise's back, which had hurried the speed at which Flynn kicked him out.

Well, fine. He didn't want to hang out in her fancy empress suite and watch them rub faces together anyway. They were probably doing sex and considering people kept telling him it was a grown-up thing, he had to assume that was boring.

He stopped in front of a window. From here, he had a good view of Zaphias and it occurred to him that he'd never realized just how  _big_  the city was before. He couldn't even see the lower quarter, but he knew which direction it was in. He was pretty sure that if he left the castle and just walked in that general direction, he'd eventually find his home. That would be important for when he left here to live on his own. If he got lost, Flynn would never believe he was ready to be independant.

His eyes fell on the golden cord holding back the silk curtains. There was a round gold disc decorating its widest part, encrusted with a ruby. The jewelled box was still in his pocket, since he had nowhere to store things Flynn wouldn't find, and he took a quick look up and down the hall. The disc was about the size of a gald coin, and he was certain no one would miss it. Yuri gently tugged it off the cord and slipped it into his pocket.

There was an identical one on the opposite cord. He ought to take it, too, or someone might notice that the cords were different. Yuri took a few steps over and then snapped that one off, too. He certainly wasn't going to have to worry about money now.

"You there!"

Yuri jolted and whipped his head around to see a knight at the end of the hall. He didn't wait to see what the man had to say before bolting. The clanking of armour said the knight was following him and Yuri was certain the man had seen him filch those curtain decorations. This castle was huge, though, so if he managed to shake his pursuer, he'd be able to find a place to hide and everything would be ok.

A large hand grabbed his arm and yanked him back; the knight had easily outrun him. Yuri automatically struggled to pull away, but he didn't have much luck.

"Empty your pockets, young man." The knight's moustache quivered as he glared down at Yuri.

Yuri stuck out his chin. "I don't even have pockets."

"I saw you put something in. Empty them."

Yuri stuck his free hand into his pocket, fished around, and pulled out nothing. "Look. You're seeing things, old man."

The knight reached down and patted Yuri's side, his hand landing on the lump of the jewelled box. He raised his eyebrows. "Seeing things, am I? What's this? Pull it out."

Yuri searched for a way out. Maybe if he had a rock and he could pull the rock out and pretend that's what it was… except he didn't have a rock so that was useless.

"I'm waiting."

There was no way out. Yuri slowly reached into his pocket. The box felt as heavy as his heart as he dragged it out with a scowl.

"Where did you get this?" The man took it from his palm.

"Flynn gave it to me. I'm allowed to be here. I'm not breaking in or nothing."

"Yes, I was informed the commandant's nephew was staying with him. But what about those buttons you pulled off the curtain cords?"

"He said I could have them."

"Really? Why don't we go talk to him about this?"

"Sure." Yuri was actually pleased with that. Ordinary knights could get him in serious trouble, but Flynn was just Flynn. What's the worst he could do, be mad at him? Yuri made Flynn mad all the time; it wasn't a big deal.

The knight didn't let go of Yuri's arm as he marched him down the hall. He was annoyingly tall. Yuri couldn't wait to finally be as tall as all these knights so maybe they'd stop bossing him around so much. Being a kid sucked.

They were passing through the Knight's administrative area and nearing Flynn's office when they rounded a corner and stopped in front of a very familiar knight. Yuri's heart sank and he set his face in a stubborn glare.

"Good evening, Lieutenant Leblanc," Cumore said. His eyes turned down and his lip curled in disgust. "What are you doing with this brat?"

Leblanc straightened up and saluted. "Good evening, Captain. I caught this child stealing and I was escorting him to Commandant Flynn."

A tiny smile twitched on Cumore's face. "Stealing, you say?"

"Yes, sir. I saw him take gold decorations from a curtain cord and I found this in his pocket." He produced the box.

"Well, there's no denying that, then. He was caught red-handed. Do you really think the commandant needs to be bothered with petty crime?"

"Not… really, sir, but I thought, this being his nephew, he'd want to deal with him personally."

"I highly doubt it. He's always going on about eliminating nepotism from the government, isn't he? Besides, he's not in at the moment. I believe he's off cavorting with the empress. No, don't bother him. I can deal with this miscreant."

Leblanc hesitated. "Sir, he's… he's just a child."

Yuri's own discomfort with Cumore coupled with Leblanc's hesitations made him very keen not to be dealt with by Cumore. "Just go get Flynn. It's not like he's busy. I think he's just having a sex or whatever."

Something that sounded like a smothered laugh escaped Leblanc's lips while Cumore just looked at him with disgust. "No, I don't think we should bother the commandant at all," Cumore said. "You're dismissed, Lieutenant."

Leblanc gave Yuri a sympathetic look but all he could do was nod. "Yes, sir."

Leblanc's iron grip was immediately replaced by Cumore's. "Come along. I'll show you what we do to thieving little street rats that worm their way into proper society."


	7. Red-Handed

Flynn sat on the couch with Estellise leaning against him.  She had her nose in a book while Flynn leaned back and thought about plans for the next day.  A lot of their evenings together were spent quietly like this, but he didn’t mind.  Watching her finally get a break and the free time to indulge in a fictional adventure made him happy by proxy.  

Their quiet comfort was interrupted by a knock on the door.  Estellise started to get up, but Flynn beat her to it.  “Don’t put your book down; I’ve got it.”  He was met at the door by Lieutenant Leblanc.  “Good evening, Lieutenant.  Can I help you?”

“I’m very sorry to disturb you, sir.”  He looked over Flynn’s shoulder and bowed quickly.  “Please pardon the interruption, Your Majesty.”

“It’s ok,” she said from the couch.  “Is something wrong?”

“I thought you’d want to know, sir, that I caught your nephew stealing and Captain Cumore has taken him for discipline.”

Flynn very much wanted to ask about the stealing, but he was more concerned with the second part for now.  “What do you mean Cumore took him?”

“I was taking him to you for you to deal with, but the captain stopped me and took custody of him.  I had to ask around but I found out he’s been taken to the cells.”

Flynn carefully kept his face blank.  He was angry with Yuri for stealing and Cumore for throwing him in jail, but there was no need to take it out on Leblanc.  “Thank you for informing me.  Estellise, I’m sorry, but I need to deal with this.”

“Of course!  I’ll wait here.  Make sure Yuri’s all right.”

Flynn walked to the cells swiftly.  Leblanc filled him in on what he’d caught Yuri doing, so Flynn wasn’t feeling overly sympathetic when he arrived.  What was Yuri thinking?  He’d never been a thief.  Ok… there were a few food items Yuri had turned up with that had questionable histories, but stealing food to survive was different from stealing antiques and gems.  Had Yuri always been something of a criminal and he just remembered his friend with rose-tinted glasses?  

That in mind, Flynn was prepared to unleash a storm on Yuri when he reached the cell.  Then he stopped in front of it and saw Yuri curled up on the wooden bench with his face buried in his knees and his arms hugging his shins.  He seemed so very small, and with that thought he noticed how red Yuri’s hands were.  

Yuri looked up at the sound of the door unlocking, but he quickly covered his face again.  “Go away,” he mumbled.

Flynn strode across the cell and took a seat next to Yuri.  Yuri didn’t react and Flynn took a moment to gather his thoughts and figure out how to handle this. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“No.  Leave me alone.”

“Why were you stealing?”

“‘Cause.”

“I’m not going to leave you in jail.  You’re not under arrest.  I just want to understand what happened.”  

He rested his hand on Yuri’s shoulder, but then Yuri flinched and pulled away with a hiss.  “Why should I trust you?” he snarled.  “Knights suck.”

He’d pulled away quickly enough that the collar of his shirt caught on Flynn’s fingers and tugged aside to reveal a raised red mark thicker than Flynn’s thumb disappearing down his back.  Flynn looked to Yuri’s hands, which were also crisscrossed with welts.  Flynn reined in his anger and asked as calmly as he could, “Why don’t you trust me?”

“I hate knights,” he grumbled.  “I hate Cumore.”

Of course Cumore was responsible.  Flynn hadn’t even wondered.  “What did he do?”

“He hit me with a stick.”  Yuri finally raised his head enough to reveal another red mark across his face.  His eyes were rimmed with red from - knowing Yuri - rubbing them vigorously to prevent crying.  “He’s a captain.  What good are the Knights if they can’t even protect people from themselves?”

Flynn let an angry breath through his nose.  “Yuri, that is not what the Knights stand for.  I’m going to discipline him harshly for this.  How bad are you hurt?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not.  Let me see your hands.”  When Yuri didn’t movie, Flynn gently took Yuri’s wrists and pulled them away from his body.  Flynn couldn’t help but wince; any skin not covered in long welts was inflamed.  “Where else did he hit you?”

“Around my shoulders and back.”

“How many times?”

Yuri started to shrug but then stopped with a wince.  “Dunno.  Didn’t count.”  

Flynn was still angry about the stealing, but his anger at this horrific abuse of power overshadowed it.  “Come on.  I’m taking you to Estellise.  She can make all this bruising go away.”  Yuri didn’t immediately move, so Flynn wrapped his arms around him and tenderly pulled him up, careful to avoid the upper part of his back where the blows were.  It was a testament to how sore and miserable he was that Yuri didn’t immediately protest being picked up.

On his way out, Flynn stopped at the guard desk.  “I’m taking this boy.  I don’t ever want to see children down here again.  Understand?”

The knight bobbed his head.  “Yes, sir.  It’s just, the captain said-”

“I’ll be speaking to the captain later.”  His voice was so clipped the knight just nodded in fear.

Flynn walked slowly, careful not to jostle Yuri.  It had been dark in the cell, but he was sure that once he saw Yuri’s injuries in proper light, he’d only be more furious.  He didn’t agree with corporal punishment in general, and he definitely didn’t agree with inflicting it on children.  Yuri spent the trip in silence, his face buried in Flynn’s shoulder.

They were almost at Estellise’s door when Yuri suddenly spoke.  “Flynn… I remembered a thing.”

He was still distracted by his fury so he mumbled.  “About what?”

“Cumore.  He was there.”

“Where?”

“When I got sent here.  He was there.  That’s why he freaks me out so much.”

That got Flynn’s attention.  “Cumore?  But it was the mages.  What did the Knights have to do with it?”

“There were knights standing guard, ‘member?”

That was right.  And Cumore would have been a fairly young man back then, possibly given some easy, low demand job like standing guard outside.  If he had seen some kid sneaking around trying to see what was inside, Cumore wouldn’t have given him any mercy.  Pierces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place.  

At Estellise’s door, he carefully bent to reach the doorknob without dropping Yuri and stepped in.  When Estellise saw them, she leapt to her feet.  

“What happened?”

“He’s hurt.  Can you help?”

“Of course.”

Flynn set Yuri on the couch.  “Cumore caned him.  He has injuries on his hands, back, and face.  I need to speak with Captain Cumore.  Yuri,”  his hand rested on the back of Yuri’s head, “I need to go for now.  Estellise will take take care of you and I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Yeah, ok,” he mumbled.  

Flynn left, and now that Yuri was in safe hands he could cultivate his anger in full force.  He didn’t even knock when he reached Cumore’s office and instead burst in to find the man carefully carefully examining his eyebrows with a hand mirror at his desk.  

The mirror slammed into the desk as Cumore jolted upright.  “What is the meaning of this intrusion?!”

Despite the fact that Flynn had been commandant for more than a year, Cumore still couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the fact that Flynn outranked him and was actually his boss.  “I need to talk to you about Yuri Lowell.”

“Who?”

At Cumore’s desk now, Flynn slammed his hand and made the wood shake.  “The boy you saw it fit to beat black and blue.”

“Oh, the thief.”  Cumore leaned back and waved his hand.  “I knew you’d demand special treatment for him.  Aren’t you the one always saying criminals should be punished no matter who their relations are?  The boy was caught stealing red-handed, so I delivered an appropriate punishment.”

“No, Cumore, it was not an ‘appropriate’ punishment.  It infuriates me that I have to make this clear, but it is not standard Knighthood policy to beat children.”

“Do parents in the lower quarter not teach their children the adage ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’?”

Flynn fixed his steely gaze on Cumore.  “No, actually.  In the lower quarter, we’re more fond of the adage ‘beat a small child with a heavy stick and give him long-lasting psychological trauma’.  

Cumore shrugged.  “Well, children in the lower quarter grow up poor and stay poor, so clearly one method is more effective than the other.”

“I’m not arguing this with you. The Imperial Knighthood does not practice corporal punishment.  If you ever assault a prisoner again, I’m having you arrested.  Especially a minor.”

Cumore curled his lip in disgust, but even he seemed to realize he couldn’t directly defy the commandant on this.  “If that’s how you want to run the Knighthood.”

“Yes, it is.”

“So what do you suggest?  You’re just going to let the boy get away with theft?”

Flynn fought the urge to let out an exasperated sigh.  “I’m going to talk to him and I’m going to punish him without getting the legal system involved.  You can’t punish children the same way you punish adults.  Their brains aren’t developed enough to properly understand consequences.”

“So you say.”

“So science says.”  This gave him an idea, and he added, “Actually, I spoke with a mage named George Herbert the other day.  He said to pass along a greeting to you.”  Flynn watched Cumore’s face for any sign of recognition.

“George Herbert?” Cumore sniffed dismissively.  “I can’t say I know of such a man.”

“He said you worked with him about thirteen years ago on a project in the lower quarter.”

Cumore rolled his eyes.  “That?  I’m surprised he remembers.  Very well, greeting accepted.”

“Just what were you working on?”

Cumore flipped his hand.  “I was guarding a government-funded experiment.  It’s nothing important.  Do you have a reason for still being here?”

Someday Cumore would grasp that he wasn’t supposed to speak that way to his commanding officer no matter where he was born, but Flynn didn’t feel like fighting it today.  “No.”  He turned to leave, but on his way out he snapped, “Get back to work,” just to remind Cumore who the commandant was.

Back at Estellise’s apartment, he didn’t bother knocking and entered the main room.  Yuri lay curled up on the couch with his back to the door.  He was wearing one of Flynn’s baggy shirts again, and Flynn took a quick minute to hope Yuri was too distracted to ask why one of Flynn’s shirts had been on the floor in Estellise’s bedroom.

“Yuri?”

The boy peeked over his shoulder.

“How are you?”

“I’m fine.”

Estellise hurried across the room.  “I healed what I could,” she said in a low voice when she reached him.  “I’m afraid there’s not much I can do for bruising.  He’ll be sore for a few days.  I offered him some ice cream, but he didn’t want any.  I think his hands are too sore.  Did you take care of things with Cumore?”

“I told him off.”

Estellise slumped her shoulders and frowned.  “I wish we could do something about that man.  Especially after what he did in Mantaic, and now this….”

Flynn rubbed her arm.  “I know.  It’s frustrating.  Thank you for helping.”

“Of course.  You know you can always bring an injury to me.”

She really meant it, too.  Estellise was the kind of person who really would drop everything to help a complete stranger, and Flynn couldn’t help but love that about her.  “I’m taking him back to my place tonight.  We need to talk.”

“Ok.  I’ll be here if you need anything.”

“Thank you.”  He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and then approached Yuri.  “Yuri?”  He crouched and lightly brushed Yuri’s shoulder.  “Let’s go back to my place, ok?”

“Ok.”  Yuri unfolded himself from the couch.  It killed Flynn to see how obviously pained his movements were.

“I can carry you if you-”

“I can walk.”  Yuri slid off the couch.  

“Good.”  

They made the trip to Flynn’s apartment in silence, and when they arrived, Flynn led Yuri to the bedroom.  “My bed is softer than the couch.  You’ll sleep better in here.”

“Fine.”  Yuri crawled onto the bed, but instead of lying down, he folded his legs and rested his hands in his lap.  

Flynn sat on the other side of the bed and stared at Yuri’s red hands for a few moments.  He was furious that Yuri had been injured like this… but he was also angry that Yuri had been stealing in the first place.  “Do you want to go to sleep, or can we talk for a bit?”

Yuri shrugged one shoulder.  “We can talk if you wanna.  I know what you’re gonna say, though.”

“And what’s that?”

Yuri deepened his voice as much as he could.  “‘Yuri, I’m very disappointed in you. Don’t ever steal things again.’  That about it?”

Flynn raised an eyebrow.  “Is that what you think I sound like?”

“Pretty much, but with stuffier language.”

“Hm… ok, then I’ll try to keep this un-stuffy.  You already know I’m upset that you were stealing, so instead of telling you it was wrong, I want to ask why.  You’ve only ever stolen food before, so why make the switch to precious items?”

“I’m not dumb.  There’s not really a difference between food and gold, you just have to go through a few more steps before eating it.  It’s not like I was trying to get rich or nothing, I just wanted some things I could sell and make a million gald.”

“Ok… but why do you feel the need to get money?  You’re never going to live in poverty again, Yuri.  I promise.  You’re always going to be well-taken-care.”

Yuri folded his arms.  “So says you.  That’s only if I go along with the adopting thing, which I don’t like.”

“I thought we agreed it was the best decision?”

“No, we agreed you thought it was the best decision.”

Flynn sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.  Were they really going to have to have this conversation again?  “Yuri, I thought you understood.  This is about making smart choices for your future.  I know you think it would be fun to run free for the rest of your life, but having a stable family will really help you in the long run.”  He recalled what he’d mentioned to Cumore about children’s brains not understanding consequences.  He was pretty sure they also couldn’t grasp long-term plans and forgoing immediate gratification, which was going to make this debate difficult.  

“Yeah, sure, as long as that family keeps me.”

Flynn frowned.  “What do you mean?  They’d keep you until you grew up.”

“Why should they?”  Yuri’s voice rose and he audibly struggled to keep it from trembling.  “No one else does!”

This made Flynn stop.  In his silence, Yuri kept going.

“First I was living with the Hankses, but then Mrs. Hanks died and I had to find somewhere else.  So then I lived at the Comet for a bit but it was too busy and I kept bothering customers or something so she said I should live with someone else and only visit, and then I was living with another family but then the husband lost his job and they couldn’t afford to keep me with their real children.  And I lived alone on the street for a bit until your mom and dad let me stay with them.  But then your dad died, and now I’m here and your mom is gone too!  And I thought I would stay with you, ‘cause you’re my best friend even if you are all old now, but you want to hand me over to some other family I’ve never met.  Why should I think these people are gonna keep me around after the fun of having a new kid goes away?”

Flynn gaped at him, trying to put his heart back together.  “Yuri… it’s not like that.  I’m not trying to get rid of you….”

Yuri looked away and pulled his arms tight.  “Yeah, well no one else was trying to ‘get rid of’ me either, but they all ditched me anyway.  Everyone who’s ever taken care of me has left me at some point, so I figure there’s no reason to drag it out.  I’m just going to live on my own from now on so I don’t have to worry about it.”

He should have realized.  Yuri was only half the stubborn little brat he pretended to be.  A good chunk of his tough exterior was a shield forged from how often he’d been left on his own or tossed aside, so of course he’d interpret this as being abandoned once again.  Flynn kept saying this was best for him because it would give him stability, but how much stability would come from one more exchange of caregivers?  What Yuri needed more than a traditional two-parent family was the reassurance that he has someone in his life he could always fall back on.  

Could Flynn be that person?  If he said yes now, he could never back out for the next ten years.  Part of him said it was ridiculous.  He was twenty-two, with a job that felt like twenty-two year’s worth of work in a single day.  He’d told people the boy staying with him was his nephew, but he wasn’t actually related to Yuri.  They were just friends, and friends who hadn’t seen each other for thirteen years at that.  

But it hadn’t been thirteen years to Yuri, had it?  It had been the span of an afternoon.  The malicious actions of some mages and a corrupt knight had wrenched him out of his home and hurled him into a different time where the only person he knew was Flynn.  He was lost, confused, scared, and in desperate need of support.  

It wouldn’t be a monetary burden.  Everything they might need could be provided by the castle, and he already had an extra room in his apartment, since previous commandants had housed families here. That was right… there had been commandants in the past that raised families while holding this job.  If they could do it, why couldn’t he?

“Yuri… would you like to stay with me?”

Yuri eyed him with suspicion.  “For how long?”

“For… well, ever.”  This was a huge commitment.  Possibly the biggest one he’d ever made.  Even when accepting the post of the commandant he knew he could always resign if it simply became too much.  But he could not, ever, rescind this invitation.  Yuri had to know that there were people in the world who would never abandon him, and that meant pledging to be one of those people until this small child was a grown man.  

“Really?”  Yuri’s eyes gleamed.  “I can stay with you?  I can live in the castle forever?”

“Yes.”  Flynn nodded firmly, not revealing a hint of hesitation.  “If that’s what you want, then you can stay with me forever.  I’ll be your guardian from now on.”

Yuri scooted across the bed, awkwardly trying to crawl without pressing his hands into the mattress.  When he reached Flynn’s side, he wrapped his arms around his waist.  “You’re the best, Flynn.”

Flynn gently rested his arm around Yuri’s shoulders.  “Yeah, well, you’re still going to be grounded for stealing.”

Yuri's embrace weakened.  “You’re only sort of great, Flynn.”


	8. Only a Dog

Flynn lay in Estellise’s bed with his hands folded on his chest.  Yuri was still in Flynn’s room, fast asleep in his bed.  “I’m not really sure what I got myself into, but I feel like I did the right thing.  I just hope I don’t regret it later.”

“I think it’s really wonderful what you did.”  She lay on her side with her hands folded under her head.  “I’m sure Yuri will be really happy to stay with someone he knows.”

“Yes… I’m just worried I won’t be good enough.  I have such a busy job, and I don’t know anything about raising children.  Sometimes I feel like I’m still a child myself.”

“You take care of the Knights, don’t you?  I think it’s the same, sort of.”

Flynn smirked.  “Right.  If he misbehaves, I’ll court martial him.”

“I’ll help as much as I can, too.”

Flynn’s chest rose and fell with a deep sigh.  “Actually, I need to talk to you about that.  I accepted this responsibility for myself, but it isn’t fair on you to have this burden.  Our relationship has been wonderful so far, but my workload has just doubled now that I have a child to look after, and I don’t want you to feel compelled to take responsibility for him as well.  You’re even younger than me and if you’re not ready for this new aspect to our relationship, then I completely understand.”

“Flynn.”  She reached out to rest her hand on his arm.  “I love you and I’m not going to leave you just because Yuri is here now.  I don’t think I’m ready to be a mother or anything like that, but I’ll help you however I can.”

“Thank you.”  He smiled a bit.  “It’s not so bad.  I always did want a family one day.  This isn’t how I imagined it starting, but here we are.”

Estellise giggled.  “You sure like to be exceptional.”

Flynn rolled on his side so they were close together and then brushed her hair behind her ear.  “It’s not really fair, is it?  We got saddled with a kid and we didn’t even get to do the fun part of making one.”

Her cheeks pinkened and she leaned forward to bump his forehead.  “Maybe some other time.”

* * *

 

After breakfast the next day, Yuri followed Flynn to his office.  Flynn dragged a chair against the wall and pointed at it.  “Sit here.”

“What for?”

“You’re going to sit here today and think about why stealing is not acceptable no matter what.”

Yuri gaped at him.  “All day?!”

“You can have a break at lunch time.”

“That’s so boring!”

“That’s the point.  This is a punishment.”

Yuri stuck up his hands.  “Thought I already got punished?”

“That was not an appropriate punishment.  You’re not off the hook just because you got hurt.”

“That’s not fair at all.”

“Neither is life.  I’m very sorry Cumore hurt you, but the punishment for theft is being grounded for the day.  Now sit down.”

Yuri folded his arms.  “Make me.”

Flynn reached down, picked Yuri up, and placed him on the chair.  “Do not leave this seat unless I give you permission.”  He returned to his desk, but once he sat down and looked back up at Yuri, the boy had stretched his legs to reach the floor.  “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.  I haven’t left the seat, have I?”

Flynn rolled his eyes.  “Fine.  Put your legs wherever you like as long as your butt stays on that seat.”  

Naturally, this inspired Yuri to find the most radical position he could place his legs in without leaving the seat.  He held them in the air, turned backwards and lifted them onto the chair back, scooted as far to the edge of the chair as he could to stretch his toes out, and then sat on the edge sideways, leaned forward while clutching the bottom lip, and tucked his legs under.

Flynn saw the direction physics was going to take a few seconds before Yuri.  He started to stand up on instinct with the image of the chair toppling over and crushing Yuri hot on his mind.  Yuri’s fingers, still sore and stiff from last night, gave out before gravity took hold of the chair.  Yuri dropped and landed on his chest with a grunt.

Standing now, Flynn frowned and asked, “Are you hurt?”

Yuri wriggled upright with a wince.  “No.”

Flynn sank back down.  “Good.  Now you have ten extra minutes of time-out for leaving the chair.”

“What!?  I didn’t do it on purpose!”

“The laws of the Empire, much like the laws of gravity, don’t care about intent.  You left the chair, you get extra time.”

“You suck.”

“If you don’t get back on that chair by the time I finish this sentence, it will be twenty minutes and a reduced lunch break.”

Yuri scrambled back to his seat.  

Flynn bowed his head and got back to work.  Yuri continued testing his limits, but after a few minutes he realized Flynn wasn’t even looking anymore and this was doing nothing to annoy him, so he gave up.  

Around eleven, Flynn finally finished enough work that needed to be done before noon so that he could take a quick break.  He shuffled his papers into orderly stacks on the desk and rose from his seat.  “I’m going out briefly.  I have no idea how many minutes it will be before I burst through that door again.  If you aren’t in the chair when I return, you won’t get dessert for a week.”

Yuri crossed his arms.  “I don’t want dessert anyway.”

“Yes, you do.”

Yuri glared at him, but a lie as great as not wanting dessert easily showed through his face.  

“I’ll be back anytime.”  Flynn left, wondering just what the chances were that Yuri would actually still be seated when he returned.  He supposed it didn’t really matter.  The caning he’d gotten from Cumore was more than enough punishment, but Flynn didn’t want to send the message that Yuri’s theft was actually acceptable just because Flynn condemned Cumore’s choice of punishment.  

Flynn journeyed through the castle until he came to the lab Rita worked out of when she was here.  He knocked and then walked in to find Rita hunched over sheets of notes on her desk.  “Good morning.”

“Hey.”  She looked up from her work.  “Need something?”

“I was just wondering if you’ve discovered anything about Herbert’s research.”

“Actually, yes.”  She straightened up and spread the papers further.  “From what I can tell, it’s not an exact science.  That figures, since it’s based on a natural system. It’s supposed to work much more powerfully on living creatures, so that animals get pulled forward several hours but the sand they stand on jump only a few seconds.  What happened is those mages used way too much power, so the inanimate rocks went forward by hours and living things showed up years later.”

“Interesting.  So… is there any way to send him back?”

“That’s what I’m trying to work out.  I remember when we encountered that thing, it kept flipping us back and forth between day and night, but weeks didn’t pass so it must have been shifting back and forth.”

“So you can return him to his own time?”  Flynn wasn’t sure how he felt about that.  It would be great for Yuri to go back to his proper time, but Flynn sort of liked the idea of taking care of him.  It was scary to suddenly have the responsibility of taking care of a child, but scary in a good way.  Plus there was the fact that he had no idea how time worked and wondered if sending Yuri back would cause his reality to cease to exist.  He wouldn’t notice because he wouldn’t exist at all, but as someone who currently existed he didn’t like the idea of stopping that.  

“Well…”  Rita frowned.  “The thing is, I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to send things back in time, or at least with any accuracy.”

It wasn’t like Rita to be pessimistic about her abilities.  “Why do you say that?”

“Because I decided if I ever managed it in my lifetime, I’d send a note back at a certain time yesterday.  That didn’t happen, so I have to assume I never will.”

“Or maybe you will, and sending it back will cause this time to branch off in a new direction and we’re stuck in the timeline where you didn’t.”

“Yeah… that too.”  She ran her fingers through her hair with a growl of frustration.  “I hate all this time stuff.  Blastia were so much simpler.  I didn’t have to worry about interfering with the nature of causality when I worked with them.”

“I have to agree.”  

“There is something else, though.”  She pushed her papers away and folded her arms on the table with a frown.  “Herbert came to talk to me today.”

“What about?”

“Yuri.  He was asking questions about where he came from.  I just told him he was your nephew, but I’m not sure he believed me.”

“Do you think he knows?”

“I think he’s suspicious.  He said something about how that dog they sent through was on his mind lately and how he wished it had come out again so they had the chance to study it.  Something about checking how time-travel affects biological processes.  I told him the dog was probably dead and Yuri was just some kid your estranged sister saddled you with, but keep your eyes peeled.  If he’s the guy who sent Yuri here, he might recall his face.”

Flynn nodded slowly with a sigh.  “Thanks for the warning.”

“Speaking of staying alert, how’s the planning for the parade going?”

“It’s fine, thank you.  I’ve managed to get everything in order.”

“Are there any security concerns?”

Flynn shrugged.  “Just the usual death threats.”

“Against you or Estellise?”

“Me, mostly.”

Rita visibly suppressed the urge to say, ‘good’.  

Flynn knew she didn’t mean it as wanting him to die, and he found her intense friendship with Estellise sweet.  “Anyway, I should head back and see if Yuri’s still where I left him.  He’s supposed to be in time-out for the day, but I really don’t know if it will stick.”

“Oh, right.  Estellise told me about your plan to raise him. All I can say is good luck and don’t look at me if you ever need a babysitter.”

Flynn smiled at her.  “I appreciate your support, Rita.  I’ll see you later.”

When Flynn reached his office’s hallway, he was only half surprised to see Yuri near the door, still sitting in the chair.  When he heard footsteps, Yuri whipped his head around and smiled triumphantly.

“Do you want to explain yourself?” Flynn asked as he approached.

Yuri crossed his arms and looked very smug.  “You said I couldn’t leave the chair.  You never said the chair couldn’t leave the room.”

“You know exactly what I meant.”  He opened the door to his office and grabbed the back of the chair.  

“But you didn’t say.  You said not to leave the chair and I didn’t leave the chair!”

Flynn tilted the chair back and dragged it, Yuri and all, back into the office.  “So what was your plan?  Wiggle and scoot your way to freedom?”

Yuri grumbled as Flynn dragged him back to the wall.  “Better than sitting here all day.”

“If you don’t want to spend the day sitting in my office doing nothing, you shouldn’t steal.”

“Okaaaaay, I get it.  Lesson learned.  Can I go play now?”

“Nope.”  Flynn left Yuri and returned to his desk.

“Can I at least go back to your place and lie on the couch where it’s more comfortable?”

“No.  Besides, my apartment is crowded.”  He’d arranged for servants to clear out his unused storage room and furnish it for Yuri.  If living together was going to be permanent, he couldn’t keep sleeping on the couch or Flynn’s bed.  It was nice to be able to delegate the task of buying furniture and dragging it into position.

“Oh, yeah, you said you’re getting a proper room for me, right?”

“That’s right.”  Flynn didn’t look up as he flipped through the next stack of forms.

“Can I have a bunk bed?”

“You don’t need a bunk bed.  It’s your own room and there’s no concern about saving space.”

“Yeah, but bunk beds are cool.”

Flynn breathed a little more heavily through his nose.  “I’ll see what I can do.”

* * *

 

Two days later, Yuri lay on the floor in his room.  This was rather exciting, because he’d never had his own room before.  The deep blue walls still smelled of paint and he lay on a thick, round rug covering the hardwood floor.  He didn’t have a bunk bed, but Flynn said if it was so important to him, he could hang a hammock in the corner and sleep on that.  Yuri was still debating this; hammocks were cool, but it probably wouldn’t be as comfortable.  Plus, no one had ever bought a bed for him before and he was excited to have his own.  

It was midafternoon.  He’d had lunch with Flynn, but Flynn had to go back to work and Yuri was left to entertain himself again.  Repede lay in front of him.  Yuri placed his hands over Repede’s paws and then leaned forward to bump his nose.  Repede responded by licking Yuri’s face and then moving his paws away when Yuri pulled his hands up to rub his slobbery face.  

Then there was a knock on the front door.  Repede looked up and Yuri automatically assumed someone else would answer it.  Then he remembered he was home alone, and got up to see who it was.  On his way there, he remembered Flynn’s mom telling them not to answer the door if they were alone, but he didn’t think that applied here.  It wasn’t like he lived in a normal house; anyone who would be knocking had already passed castle security to get into the building.

Yuri swung the door open and immediately regretted that decision.  “What do you want?” His glare alternated between Herbert and Cumore.  

“Hi, there.”  Herbert crouched and rested his hands on his knees.  “You’re Yuri, right?”

Yuri kept one hand on the door as he scowled at them.  “What’s it to you?”

Herbert put on a warm smile.  “I think we’ve met before, haven’t we?  Captain Cumore told me that Commandant Flynn was asking about a little experiment I was working on a while ago, and considering you just showed up out of the blue, we guessed that you’re probably the boy involved, right?”

“I dunno what you’re talking about.  Flynn’s my uncle and I’m living with him now.  Buzz off.”  He tried to shut the door, but Herbert’s hand shot forward and caught it.  

“It’s ok.  You don’t have to be scared.  Just think about how famous you’ll be!  The first person to travel through time!”

Yuri pushed on the door to try to close it, but he couldn’t overpower Herbert.  “My uncle’s the commandant and I live with the empress.  I think I’m plenty famous.”

Herbert stopped fighting him for the door and instead grabbed his wrist.  “I just need to do a few tiny tests to see if there were any biological effects of time travel and see if we can replicate it to control how far we send you forward next time.”

“Not interested.”  Yuri tugged his wrist, which was still sore from the beating his hands had taken three days ago.  

Cumore rolled his eyes.  “There’s no need to be difficult.  Why, we already asked Flynn and he said you could come with us.  Plus, we’ll… we’ll give you candy.”

Yuri gave him a disgusted look.  “How dumb do you think I am?  I’m eight, not six.”

“Don’t be afraid,” Herbert said with that same mockingly friendly smile.  “We just need you to come with us for a little while.  When you help us perfect time-travel, we’ll even give you some of the profits!  How about a whole thousand gald, huh?”

“I don’t need your stupid money and I’m not going with you.”

“It would make this so much easier on all of us if you’d come nicely.”  Herbert yanked Yuri forward and then Cumore grabbed him around the waist, lifted him up, and flung him over his shoulder.

Yuri slammed his fists into Cumore’s back.  “Put me down!”

“Oh, hush,” Cumore drawled.  

“You’re going to be in so much trouble for this!”

“As if people won’t believe I’m merely apprehending you for petty crimes again.”

They started walking away, but then Yuri heard a snarl.  From upside down, he watched Repede tear across the apartment and pounce at Cumore.  Repede barked as Cumore gasped and lost his grip on Yuri.  While Cumore flailed his arms to defend himself from the dog, Yuri crashed to the floor.  

“Get - off - you - mongrel!”

Yuri dashed into the apartment and slammed the door shut while the men were still distracted by Repede.  He slammed the lock into place and shouted, “And stay out, you jerks!”

“You idiot!” Herbert snapped.  “It’s only a dog!”

Repede snarled again and Yuri heard running footsteps as Cumore and Herbert finally skedaddled.  Repede woofed more gently to let Yuri know it was safe to come out, but he wasn’t taking any chances.  

“Repede, go get Flynn.”

The dog ran off and Yuri hurried to his room to fetch the wooden sword Flynn had bought him.  Weapon in hand, he sat behind the couch and took deep breaths to calm down.  That had been a close one.  It was so frustrating to think that he would have been able to kick those guys’ butts easily if they weren’t so much bigger than him.  He wasn’t even four feet tall; how was he supposed to fight grown-ups?  Being a kid sucked.  

As he started to calm down, he was able to pay attention to the words repeating in his head.  It’s only a dog….  Why did he feel like he’d…?  

“It’s only a dog.  Stop blubbering and find a new subject….”

Layers of fog peeled away from his brain.  Shadows of memories took form out of the mist.  

He was standing tip-toe on a box, trying to see through the small window.  Yuri had no idea what the mages were doing inside, but Flynn was being dumb and refused to even try to find out.  The mages weren’t doing anything exciting for now, though.  They seemed to be arguing.

“What do you mean, it’s dead?!”

“Poor thing was slumped against the wall.  I think the heat got to her.”

Someone grumbled, “I think old age got to her, but sure.”

“Well leaving her outside couldn’t have helped!”  This guy sounded younger.  “I told you guys to at least get her some water!”

“Ah, well, we were busy.  And she kept barking!  It was very distracting.”

Yuri grabbed the sill of the window and pulled to try to get a better view.  He had no clue what they were talking about, but apparently they’d accidentally killed a dog and that made them huge buttheads.  This magic experiment they were working on had better be really impressive to make that worthwhile.  

His grip on the ledge slipped and he wobbled.  The crate creaked and his feet scuffled to regain his balance.  Argh, he was too short to see inside.  This sucked.  He’d have to make do with listening.  

“Gentlemen, you’re ignoring the important part-”

“‘Portant part is she was just a sweet dog….”

“The important part,” he said louder, “is that we have the system prepared for the first major trial, but nothing to test it on.  I have half a mind to shove you in there instead!”

Serves him right, Yuri thought.  Only a huge scumbag would let a dog die.  As much as Yuri wanted to find out what this experiment was, he couldn’t see a thing so there wasn’t much point sticking around.  Besides, Flynn would be looking for him by now, and he needed to find a good place to hide to prove  him wrong.  

Yuri was just about to turn around when a hand gripped the back of his shirt and yanked.  With a yelp, Yuri toppled backward onto the dirt road.  

“What have we here?”  A young knight with short blue hair sneered down at him.  “Trespassing on imperial territory, are we?”

“We live in the Empire.”  Yuri pushed himself up to his elbows.  “Everywhere is imperial territory.”

The knight grabbed Yuri’s arm and jerked him to his feet.  “And this is a confidential government-sponsored research project which you have no business sticking your snivelling little nose in.”

“Bet you have experience sticking your nose in things.  I mean, you couldn’t avoid it.  Does the tip have a different time zone?”

The knight’s eyes narrowed and then he twisted Yuri’s arm roughly behind his back.  

“Ow, hey!”  

The knight shoved him, forcing him to walk forward.  “Let’s see what the mages think of your eavesdropping.”

Yuri stumbled forward as he tried to pry his arm out of the knight’s grip.  “Hold on, I’m in the middle of a hide and seek game.  It’s against the rules to go inside a building.”

The knight apparently did not care about the sacred rules of hide and seek and forced Yuri into the old warehouse.  A group of four men in mage robes stood in the centre of the room.  Behind them, a pair of blastia sat on the floor with a glass flask containing a bright turquoise fluid between them.  In the air above was a shimmering disc of crackling energy and blue light.  The air around the edges distorted like a heat wave.  

“Whoa.”  Yuri’s eyes locked on the light with fascination.  At least he was getting to see what the mages were up to, even if he was going to get in trouble for this.  “What’s that for?”

“Cumore?” one of the mages, a portly man with round glasses, turned around.  “Who’s this?”

“I caught this little rat snooping outside.”

“Little brat,” another mage said.  “Didn’t your parents ever teach you not to eavesdrop?”

Yuri, who had given up trying to escape from Cumore, stuck his chin out.  “I don’t have parents.”

“Figures,” the fat mage said.  “Another orphan wretch in this disgusting neighbourhood.  I can’t wait to get back to Aspio.”

“It’s not disgusting!  We may not have much food, but at least we’re not mistaken for balloons.”

Cumore smacked the side of his head.  “Shut your mouth.  What do you want me to do with him?  I’m not sure how much he heard.”  

Another mage, who had red-rimmed eyes and was probably the one crying about the dog, waved his head.  “What does it matter?  He’s just a kid.  Throw him out and we can get back to work.”

“What if he heard details about the project?” a third mage said.  “He could tell others.  A project like this is going to make us a fortune and I wouldn’t put it past others to try to get in or steal our ideas.  He might already be paid off by someone trying to snoop.”

“We’re not going to make any gald because you louts ruined our test,” the fat mage grumbled.  “Do you know how much it will cost to shut down today and set it all up tomorrow when we’ve found a replacement stray?  This is your fault, Cumore.  You were supposed to be patrolling the perimeter and keeping snoops away.  You deal with it.”

Cumore grumbled something under his breath.  “Very well….”  He looked down at Yuri and started to move backward, but then he stopped.  “Actually… Mr. Herbert, I have a suggestion.”

“Eh?  What’s that?”

“You need a moderately-sized animal to send through the portal and test if it works on complex mammals, right?  Well…”  Cumore shoved Yuri forward.  “We also need to get rid of this brat.  If it doesn’t work, we’ll be killing two birds with one stone.”

Mr. Herbert raised his eyebrows.  “I see…. now there’s an idea.”

“What?”  The dog-loving mage looked between them with shock.  “You can’t be suggesting we test it on the kid.”

“What’s the harm?” the third mage said.  “No one’s going to miss an orphan from the lower quarter.”

“No way!”  Yuri didn’t know what their weird circle of light was, but he’d figured out they intended to chuck him into it and he wanted none of that nonsense.  “You guys are crazy!”

“Come on, guys…” Loves-Dogs frowned as Cumore pushed Yuri closer to the light.  “He’s just a little kid… we have no idea if this is remotely safe.”

“Listen to that guy!”  Yuri kicked Cumore’s shins and twisted his arm to try to escape.  Mr. Herbert grabbed his other arm to help Cumore rein him in.  

“Maybe you fools should have thought of that before you let our test dog die,” Herbert snapped.  “This kid’s about the same size and weight of the dog.  Perfect substitute.”

“I’m nothing like a dog!”  Yuri’s feet scraped the floor as they dragged him forward.  “You guys better let me go!  My best friend’s gonna be a really powerful knight someday and he’ll make you regret it!”  He kicked, he struggled, and he shouted, but none of it did him any good.  He had to stay angry, because if he let that anger slip he knew he’d fall into terror. The worst part was realizing that Flynn had been right, that he shouldn’t have come poking his nose in, and now something terrible was going to happen and it was all his fault.  

“You’ll be in so much trouble if you don’t let me go!  L-let me go!”  Yuri was loathe to show weakness, but with tears welling up in his eyes and an unknown fate a foot from his face, he couldn’t help screaming, “Stop it!  Help!”  

How could everything fall apart so fast?  Fifteen minutes ago he’d been talking to Flynn, and now he was more scared than he’d ever been in his life and wanted nothing more than to go home.  Flynn really was never going to find him this time.  

And now it was only week later, but actually thirteen years.  Flynn had lived a whole life growing up while Yuri missed all of it, and it was all those mages’ fault.  They and Cumore had done this to him and now they were back and trying to screw things up again.  They said they wanted to try sending him through time again, but what if next time he came out fifty years in the future?  What if Flynn was dead?  He couldn’t handle that!  Flynn was the only person he had left; Yuri would be ruined if Flynn died just like his parents had.  

Yuri clutched his toy sword and tried to calm down.  This was all too much.  He’d lost his old life and his best friend was really different and there were bad people trying to hurt him and he just didn’t know what to do.  

There was a sound at the door and he gasped, fearing it was Cumore again.  He pressed himself against the back of the couch to remain hidden, because he knew he was powerless if it really was Cumore.  

“Yuri?”

It was Flynn!  Repede ran into the room and immediately found him behind the couch.  Flynn followed and dropped to his knees beside Yuri.  

“What’s wrong?  Repede started barking at me and wouldn’t calm down until I followed.  Are you hurt?”

Yuri shook his head and then threw himself at Flynn.  Everything was scary and confusing, but Flynn, at least, provided protection.  “Cumore and that mage from before came and they wanted me to go with them ‘cause they want to do experiments or something and I told them to go away but Cumore picked me up and tried to carry me but Repede attacked so they ran off.”

“He what?”  Flynn shifted so he sat fully on the ground and leaned against the couch.  One arm wrapped around Yuri and held him against his side.  “Cumore actually tried to carry you off?”

Yuri bobbed his head.

“That…” he sounded like he wanted to call Cumore something, but stopped himself.  “That’s it.  This is the last straw.  He’s going to be punished for this.”

“That’s not everything.  I remembered.  I know how I got here.”

“What?  Everything?”

Yuri nodded with his face still pressed into Flynn’s side.  He was still shaken from his near abduction and the memories of how terrifying getting thrown into the portal had been hit him with fresh fear.  Flynn was safety, and he didn’t ever want to let go.  

“Can you tell me?”

“‘Kay.”  As clearly as he could, Yuri babbled through a description of what he remembered.  It was jumbled and rushed, but he was sure Flynn understood the important parts.

When he finished, he said, “I’m really sorry, Flynn.  It was all my fault.  You said not to bother the mages but I did and now I made all this happen.”  He’d be lucky if Flynn let him stay with him now.  That was how it always worked - he had a home with someone until he became too much trouble.  “Don’t bother finding me another family.  I’ll be ok on my own.”

Flynn was quiet for a long moment while digesting Yuri’s story.  Then, he grabbed Yuri under the arms so he could pull him into his lap and wrap both arms around him.  “Oh, Yuri….”  His arms tightened so his hug squeezed Yuri against Flynn’s chest.  “I told you, didn’t I?  You can stay with me forever.  From now on, you’re my kid.  No matter what.”

“But I made you worry for so long.  You spent such a long time being sad because I was gone and it was my fault for going there in the first place.”

“I don’t care.  As far as I’m concerned, that was thirteen years ago.  I will never give you away or get tired of you, and I will never let anyone hurt you.”

“Really?”

“I promise.”

It was such a lovely idea.  He could actually have a permanent home, one without conditionals.  It was hard to bring himself to believe he really would never have to leave, but if Flynn said so, it had to be true.  

“Are you hurt at all?”

Yuri shook his head.  “Nah. I’m fine.”

“Good.”  Flynn ruffled Yuri’s hair and got to his feet.  “Go to your room and get any toys you want for today.  I want you to spend the rest of the afternoon in my office.”

“What?!”  Yuri’s head shot up in fury.  “But you said you weren’t mad!”

“I’m not.  You’re not being punished, I’m just worried about you being on your own in case they come back.  Humour me and play in my office instead of your bedroom?”

“Oh, ok.”  Yuri ran to his room and grabbed the box of toy soldiers.  When he returned, he placed the wooden sword on the box and said, “Hey, Flynn, can I have a real sword?”

“What?  No.”

“Why not?  If I had a real sword, then you wouldn’t have to be worried about me ‘cause I could fight off bad people on my own.”

Flynn shook his head.  “You’re not old enough for a real sword.”

“Sure I am.  I’m really good with a wooden one, right?”

“No, Yuri, you can’t have a real weapon.”

“When can I?”

“Hm… we can talk about it again when you’re thirteen.”

Yuri gaped at him.  “But that’s forever!”

“You’ll live.  Now come on.”

Yuri scowled at Flynn’s back as they left.  It wasn’t fair that Flynn got to decide when he was allowed to do things.  They were going to live together, but it wasn’t like Flynn was his dad.  Still, he wasn’t annoyed enough to make a big deal about it.  As much as he hated to admit it, spending the rest of the day in Flynn’s office seemed a lot less scary than being on his own.


	9. Growing Pains

It was Estellise who took the lead barging into Cumore’s office that evening.  Flynn had to smile at her back; she’d come such a long way from the skittish child he’d first met years ago.  He and Lieutenant Leblanc hung back and let her stomp into the room and point her finger at a startled Cumore.

“I want you out of my castle!”

Cumore looked up in surprise.  “I beg your pardon, Your Majesty?”

“I heard what you did to Yuri.”  Her accusative finger didn’t waver.  “I won’t allow you to stay in the castle.”

Cumore held out his hands.  “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I am required to be here for work.”

“Not anymore.”  Flynn stepped forward so he was shoulder-to-shoulder with Estellise.  “As of now you are on unpaid suspension pending discharge and arrest.”

Cumore raised his eyebrows.  “What charge could you possibly have against me?”

Estellise had finally lowered her finger and how she stuck her fists on her hips.  “Attempted kidnapping.”

“Are you referring to the incident with that Lowell boy?”  Cumore rolled his eyes.  “Mr. Herbert and I asked him to participate in an important research project.  He apparently didn’t understand so he threw a tantrum.  You can hardly stake my career on the moodswings of an eight year old.”

“He told you he didn’t want to go with you,” Flynn said, “so you forcibly grabbed him and attempted to carry him off.  I’d say he was perfectly justified in freaking out.”

Cumore snorted.  “Is that what he told you?”  He flipped his hand.  “I must wonder where small children get such overactive imaginations.”

Flynn glared silently at Cumore, hating the fact that he was right.  He was the commandant and Estellise was the empress, but their power was not absolute and it would take irrefutable evidence to justify sacking such a longstanding captain of the Knights, especially with his friends on the Council.  

“I trust Yuri more than I trust you,” Estellise said.

“And isn’t that reassuring from our empress.”  

“It doesn’t matter,” Flynn said.  “Because I don’t need overwhelming evidence to put you on suspension.  There’s an allegation against you, and until that is officially cleared, you’re suspended from your duties and prohibited from entering the castle.”

Cumore slapped the desk as he got to his feet.  “You can’t kick me out of here.”

“I just did.”

Cumore’s nose wrinkled.  “I’ve been working in this castle since you were nothing but a dirty street urchin, and now you think you have the right to-”

“He does,” Estellise snapped.  “Flynn is the commandant, and you have to respect that.”

Cumore’s venomous gaze flew to her.  “I’ll respect the commandant when the position is held by someone who didn’t get it for sleeping with the empress.”

“W-what?” Estellise’s hands dropped and she shot a quick look to Flynn.  “No, it wasn’t like that at all!”

Flynn raised his voice.  “That’s enough, Cumore.  Lieutenant Leblanc, please escort the captain out of the castle.”

Looking entirely pleased with his assignment, Leblanc stepped forward to take Cumore’s arm.  After they left, Flynn and Estellise relaxed with smiles.

“Wow,” Flynn said.  “The whole castle already feels nicer without him here.”

“I know what you mean.  Now if only I could find an excuse to get Ragou off the Council.

“Ok.  Next I need to send someone to inform Herbert that he is also banned from the castle.”  He rubbed his chin in thought.  “Oh, and I also need to get all the paperwork cleared up for officially suspending Cumore, and then work out who will be taking over his duties while he’s on probation….”  He shoulders slumped as his arm dropped.  “I think I’m going to be late for dinner tonight.”

Estellise smiled and kissed his cheek.  “That’s ok.  You go get your work done and I’ll take care of Yuri tonight.  I should go pick him up from Rita’s lab before she strangles him.”

* * *

 

“If you touch that, I will eviscerate you,” Rita barked.

Yuri pulled his hand away from the bottle more from the tone of her voice than the words.  He turned away from the shelf and asked, “What does that mean?”

“It means don’t touch my crap!”

“No, what does ‘effisterate’ or whatever mean?”  He’d been trapped in Rita’s lab since Flynn finished his afternoon’s work.  He’d already spent a whole afternoon playing on the floor of Flynn’s office when he’d rather be roaming the corridors or braving the heat to play outside, and now he was stuck being babysat by a tetchy mage who was trying to do science things while ignoring him.  He wasn’t even allowed to play with anything in her lab.  

“It means I’ll disembowel you.”

Yuri rolled his eyes.  “And what does that mean?”

Rita breathed sharply through her nose and finally sat up properly at her desk.  “It means to cut someone open so all their guts spill out.”

Yuri’s eyes widened.  “There’s a word for that?  How do you say it again?  Eviderate?”

“E-vis-cer-ate.”

“Whoa.”  Yuri made a mental note to add that word to his vocabulary.  “Have you ever eviscerated anyone?”

“Me?  I’m a mage.  I don’t touch bladed weapons.”

“Oh, right.  Has Flynn?”

Rita shrugged.  “Probably.  He’s been in a lot of battles.  When we were fighting at Zaude, we had to kill a lot of Alexei’s men to get to him.”

Yuri left the bookshelf so he could lean on Rita’s metallic desk and stare at her in rapture.  “So, was it dangerous?”

“Sure.  We almost got killed loads of times, but Estellise can heal really well so we were fine.”

“And Flynn kicked all their butts, right?”

Rita’s expression soured.  “It wasn’t just Flynn.  You should see the moves Judith has.  You know she tied with him in a battle at the Coliseum?”

“She’s a good fighter?  Cool!  What was the awesomest way she’s killed someone?”

“Huh… I don’t know about ‘awesome’.  Killing is killing, what’s so cool about it?  She jumps pretty high in the air, I guess.”

“Does she spin around and stab people and yell ‘ka-pow!’?”

“What?  No.  Don’t be stupid.  Why would she yell ‘ka-pow’?”

“‘Cause that would make it cool!”

“You have a weird definition of cool.”

“Ok, but when you were fighting, who killed more people?  Judith or Flynn?”

Rita crossed her arms.  “What, you think it must be either of them?”

Yuri shrugged.  “Who else was in your group?”

“Me!  Well, and Karol.  And Flynn’s dog.  Repede followed us around even when Flynn couldn’t join us.  He was worried about Estellise so he sent his guard dog after her.  Oh, and there was this creepy old man.”  Rita wrinkled her nose at the thought of him.  “That bastard betrayed us and tried to kill us.  I mean, he came around and tried to help, but I don’t want anything to do with him.”

She was skipping the most important part.  “And who killed the most people?”

“I don’t know.  It’s not like I kept track.  Why are you so hung up on this?  It’s not like any of us enjoy killing.”

“Huh?  Well… they’re bad guys.  It’s ok to kill bad guys.”  Yuri thought about this and then added, “Um… isn’t it?”

“Well…  Rita shifted around in her chair and drummed her fingers.  “I don’t know… that’s a really complicated question.  They’re people too, y’know.”  She took a breath and settled her voice.  “Look, if someone is trying to kill you, then you have to kill them before they do.  That’s all there is to it.  It isn’t fun and it isn’t a game.”

Yuri thought about this.  He rested his elbow on the table and cupped his chin and considered it for so long that Rita had started looking back at her work when he asked, “So… why do people kill people if those people aren’t trying to kill them first?”

Rita scowled at her paper and took a breath before looking up.  “Because they’re bad people and we don’t want to be like them.”

“Are a lot of people bad people?”  People like Cumore, maybe.  Was he a bad guy?  But he was a knight, and the Knights were the good guys.  Didn’t you have to be a good guy to be in the Knights?  Cumore definitely scared him, though, and he was certain good guys weren’t supposed to scare kids.  So maybe there were different levels of bad guys, and some of those bad guys were just like ordinary people who could join good guy groups.  That meant there could be bad guys hiding anywhere!

“I don’t know.”

“What if someone just jumps out and tries to stab me?”

“I really don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“What if they try to kill Flynn?  I mean, you guys killed Alexei, right, because he was a bad guy?  So what if someone else gets confused and thinks Flynn is a bad guy because sometimes bad guys look like good guys so they think they should kill him, too.”

“If that happened, Flynn would eviscerate them before they had the chance, ok?  What are you asking me all this for?”

“‘Cause you’re here and I’m bored.”

“I’m not your babysitter.”

“Close enough,” Yuri grumbled.  Flynn called it ‘protection’.  And, ok, he was nervous about Cumore and Herbert too, but Flynn had gone to take care of that already, hadn’t he?  Yuri resented being treated like a little kid who couldn’t be left alone for a minute.  He could survive sitting in Flynn’s office by himself for half an hour.  “Ok, so if someone tries to kill Flynn, he’ll effisterate them, and that means cut their guts out?”

“It’s eviscerate.  Listen properly!  It means he’ll kill them really violently.”

“And make blood go everywhere?”

“Yes, blood will go everywhere.”

It was at this moment that the door opened and Estellise entered.  She looked between Yuri and Rita and then said, “What about blood going everywhere?”

Yuri whirled around with a grin.  “Rita said that if anyone bad attacks Flynn, he’ll evisterate them and blood will fly everywhere and all their guts will come out like blegh.”  He waved his hands near his stomach to mime the disemboweling.

Estellise stared at him for a second, and then turned her shocked expression on Rita.  “What are you telling him?”

Rita jabbed her finger at Yuri.  “He started it!  I was just answering his questions!”

“Maybe don’t answer all of them….  Yuri, Flynn is busy tonight, so why don’t you come back with me and we can have supper?”

“Ok.”  Yuri followed Estellise to the door and paused to wave.  “See you later, Rita!”

“Don’t bother me in my lab again.”

As they walked away, Yuri said, “Boy, she’s friendly.”

Estellise giggled.  “Don’t worry, I think she likes you.”

“Really?”

“Did she try to set you on fire?”

“No.”

“And she answered your questions instead of telling you to shut up.  That’s a good sign of friendship from Rita.”

“You and Flynn sure have weird friends.”

Back at her apartment, Estelle approached her kitchen.  “So, are you hungry?  I can cook for you, if you want.  Um… I’m not a very good cook, but I can make vichyssoise!  And some other things, too.  Or I can have the kitchens send us a nice dinner.”

“Can you make grilled cheese?”

She cocked her head. “Grilled cheese?”

“Yeah.  You put butter on bread and then stick cheese in the middle and then grill it.  It’s really good!”

“I could do that.  It’s pretty simple, though.  Don’t you want something nicer?  I can have the kitchen bring up some really nice sandwiches.”

“I don’t want a fancy sandwich.  I just want grilled cheese.”

“Um… ok.  Sit down and I’ll make it.”

Yuri clambered onto the couch and then leaned over the back to watch.  

* * *

 

By the time Flynn arrived, dinner was long over.  Yuri sat on the couch with Estellise and a book.  It was a simple story about a princess and a dragon that had colourful illustrations with every paragraph.  Estellise had dug it out of her bedroom and wiped dust from its cover with fondness.

The going was slow.  Yuri sounded each word out, slowly working his way through the sentences with help from Estellise.  He was determined to get it, though.  Back home - that is, in the proper time - he and Flynn had struggled together to get better at reading.  Now, Flynn spent his whole day reading things with super long words and he didn’t even have to move his lips!  It felt like cheating, because he got a bonus thirteen years to practice and get better than Yuri.  

“Good evening,” Flynn said as he entered.  

Yuri let the book fall to his knees.  “Hi, Flynn!  Did’ja get all your work done?”

“Enough for today.”  He slipped off his shoes and then collapsed on the couch on the other side of Yuri.  “And how about you two?  Did you have a nice night?”

“We did!” Estellise said with a smile.  

“Estelle’s helping me get better at reading!”  Yuri opened the book and and flipped back a page.  “See, I can read this no problem.  It says, ‘The dragon was easy to follow because he left a trail of burned forests and horse bones.’”

Flynn smiled and said, “Very good,” while Estellise cocked her head and looked at him curiously.  

“Estelle?”

Yuri glanced back at her.  “Oh, yeah.  Your name’s pretty long, sorry.”

“Estelle…. Estelle.  I like it!”

“You better watch out, Flynn,” Yuri said and closed the book again.  “I’m gonna catch up and be an even better reader than you.”

Flynn patted his knee.  “I look forward to the challenge.”

“I’ll be happy to help!”  Estellise got up and then asked, “Flynn, are you hungry?  I can make you some dinner.”

“Don’t worry about me.  I’ll have the kitchen send something up.”

“No no, I want to cook for you.  It’ll be fun!”

“If you insist.  Surprise me.”

Estellise scurried off to the kitchen to prepare something, and after a few minutes Flynn followed.  Yuri watched them at first, but they weren’t doing anything interesting but chatting about grown-up stuff.  Yuri stretched out on the couch on his stomach and flipped back to the first page of the book.  He’d get through the whole thing by himself this time.  

Yuri was happily distracted until he heard Flynn say his name in a hushed voice.

“...Yuri for school. Where do nobles usually send children?”

“Private schools or tutors, mostly,” Estellise replied in an equally low voice.  It was hard to hear over the rush of boiling water as they prepared pasta, and Yuri didn’t dare sit up properly to hear better.  They were speaking low enough that it was obvious they thought he was safely distracted by the book.

“I’m sure he’d be happier in a normal public school, but that’s not really an option. You’re not talking about boarding schools, right?”

Yuri’s heart skipped a beat.  From the sound of Flynn’s question, he specifically didn’t want a boarding school, but the mere fact that it was an option worried Yuri.   Was this how Flynn was going to get around promising to always be there for Yuri?  Yes, he’d be Yuri’s guardian, as long as he spent the majority of the year living at a school?

Estellise was saying, “That’s a common choice, but there’s a small day school in the royal quarter.  Tuition is expensive, but a lot of local nobles send their children there.  There only problem might be… well… he’s quite behind.”

Behind?  What did that mean?  It made it sound like he was stupid!

“I know.  Education in the lower quarter is spotty.  He’s quite bright, but he never got the opportunity to learn properly.  I know I had a lot of catching up to do academically when I entered Knight training.”

“It’s a shame.  If he entered a class with other eight-year-olds, I don’t think he could keep up. But I’m sure he wouldn’t want to be put in a class with five and six year olds, even if that’s where he could learn all the fundamentals.”

Heck no!  Yuri fought the urge to speak up, because if they knew he was paying attention they’d stop talking.  

“You had a private tutor, didn’t you?”

“That’s right.  Oh, Flynn, you need to stir the pasta or it will stick to the bottom.”

“Ah, oops, thanks.  I think the best course of action would be to get him a tutor for a few months to get him up to speed with the rest of his age group.  Then he can join regular classes at the private school you mentioned.”

At this, Yuri couldn’t keep silent any longer.  He popped over the back of the couch and blurted, “Why do I gotta go to a stupid private school?”

Flynn’s head spun and Yuri caught a second of guilt before it settled into certainty.  “Yuri - sorry.  I didn’t know you were listening.  I’m sorry, but a private school is really the only option.”

“You’re just saying that ‘cause you’re rich now.”  Yuri stood on the couch and leaned his legs against the back with his arms crossed.  “Just ‘cause you’re rich doesn’t mean you have to do rich people things.”

Flynn left the kitchen to approach Yuri.  “It’s not about flaunting wealth.  Regular schools don’t have the proper security.”

“So?!  What, d’ya think a bunch of ninjas are gonna burst into my class? I don’t want to go to school with a bunch of spoiled rich brats.  I won’t have any friends there.”  He wasn’t too keen on daily schooling in the first place, but if he had to go, he wanted to go somewhere that was more like home.  

“Because, Yuri,” Flynn stood in front of him now, “a school oriented for the wealthy children of nobles will have the security to protect those children from their parents’ enemies.”

“But you don’t have enemies.  Everybody likes you.”

Flynn’s lips twitched.  “I wish.  Trust me, Yuri, there are plenty of people out there who would rather I wasn’t the commandant.”  He planted his hands on Yuri’s shoulders and met his eyes.  “And once it’s common knowledge that I’ve adopted you, there are people out there who might think they can convince me or Estellise to do things by threatening you.”

Yuri frowned at the intensity in Flynn’s eyes.  “I’m not afraid of being threatened.”

“It’s really me they’d be threatening.  Bad people might try to kidnap you and promise to hurt you if I don’t do what they say.”

“Well…” Yuri looked away from Flynn’s eyes.  “I’m willing to risk it if it means going to a cooler school.”

“I’m not.”  He squeezed Yuri’s shoulders.  “I thought I lost you thirteen years ago; I’m not going through that again.”

Yuri knew that look.  He was used to seeing it with softer eyes and a rounder face, but that was Flynn’s, ‘I’m absolutely getting my way this time, Yuri’ look.  He didn’t break it out too often so when Flynn was that serious about something - like the time he insisted Yuri move in with him so he wouldn’t have to sleep outside anymore - Yuri usually caved.  

But that didn’t mean he always liked it.  “Fine.”  He scowled and pulled away from Flynn to slump onto the couch.  “I’ll go to your stupid rich brat school but I’m not going to like it.”

“Um…”  Estellise still stood by the stove and watched them while chewing her lip.  “Maybe it will be better than you think?”

Yuri just sulked.  Stupid Flynn bossing him around.  Jerk.  He thought he could tell Yuri what to do just ‘cause he was older.  They were supposed to be friends but now Flynn seemed more interested in controlling Yuri’s life than being his best friend.

“That pasta is almost ready,” Estellise said.  “Um, Yuri, do you want some ice cream for dessert while Flynn eats dinner?”

Yuri wanted to keep being mad, but… ice cream.  Besides, it wasn’t Flynn offering it, was it?  He could definitely remain angry at Flynn while taking ice cream from Estellise.  

It was around nine when Flynn looked at the clock and said, “Oh, we need to get going.  It’s Yuri’s bedtime.”

Yuri looked up from the rug where he was reading.  “No, it’s not.  I’m not tired.”

Flynn rose from the couch.  “Yes, it is.”  He leaned down to kiss Estellise’s cheek.  “Good night, my dear.  Yuri, put your shoes on.  We’re heading back to my apartment.”

“Nooow?” Yuri whined.

“Yes, now.”  Flynn paused while looking at him and then took a few steps forward and got down on one knee.  “What’s on your face?”

“Huh?”  Yuri rubbed the back of his wrist over his mouth.  “Nothing.”

Flynn wiped his thumb across Yuri’s nose.  “How did you manage to get ice cream on your nose?”

Yuri shrugged and then vigorously scrubbed his nose when Flynn pulled away.  “I dunno.  Maybe it’s an omen that I shouldn’t be going to bed now.”

“Nice try.”  Flynn stood again.  “Put your shoes on.”

Yuri wrinkled his now-clean nose at Flynn and then dragged his feet all the way to the door where he’d left his shoes.  Stupid Flynn, thinking he got to decide when Yuri slept.  He’d show him!  When they got home, he’d lay awake in bed and not even try to sleep and there was nothing Flynn could do about it!  Stupid jerk control freak.

* * *

 

“You can explore the castle on your own, today,” Flynn said as Yuri sat at the table eating cereal.  “Cumore and Mr. Herbert have been banned from entering and I trust my knights to keep them out. Just don’t leave the castle grounds.”

Yuri lowered his spoon.  “Can I wander around the royal quarter at least?”

“No, stay within the castle.”

Yuri rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically.  “But I’ve been stuck in the castle for a week!  I want to see more of the city.  C’mon, you and me used to wander the streets all the time.”

Flynn was at the door now, putting on his shoes.  “Yes, and we used to be unknown kids roaming our local neighbourhood.  Now you’re a ward of the commandant and the empress and there are people out there who want to do you harm.  Stay in here where it’s safe and I promise I’ll take you out into the city when I have time, ok?”

Yuri pouted.  “Fine.”  Then he looked at his cereal and whispered, “Jerk.”

“I heard that,” Flynn said on his way out.

Yuri stuck his tongue out at the closing door and then finished his cereal.  Once done, he went to his bedroom to get dressed.  He still felt a little thrill every time he thought of it as his bedroom.  Flynn had stocked his closet with a huge array of clothes, and he’d been thoughtful enough to get the simplest ones he could find.  Or, he’d told a servant to, more likely.  Maybe Flynn was going to force him to go to a pretentious private school like the other rich noble kids, but that didn’t mean he had to dress like one.  

Dressed and ready to go, Yuri set off into the castle.  It didn’t take long for him to get bored, though.  In the week he’d been here, he’d thoroughly explored every inch he was allowed to enter and it was too hot to run around outside.  There were no other kids in the castle, so he was stuck entertaining himself.  After spending so many years with a constant companion in the form of Flynn, he was out of practice at playing by himself.  He was even starting to think school might not be that bad if it meant having something to do and other kids to talk to.  

He’d been roaming aimlessly for almost an hour when he decided he was too bored and needed to find someone to talk to.  Estellise was busy ruling the Empire or whatever and Flynn would probably just get mad at him and start bossing him around again if he tried to play in his office, so he set off to find someone else.  

Yuri didn’t bother knocking before walking into Rita’s lab.  She jerked her head up and snapped, “Hey!  Barging in on people’s rude, you know!”

“Are you busy?”

Rita gestured at the glass tubes and shiny rocks on her desk.  “What does it look like?”

“Flynn said I had to sit with you for a bit ‘cause it’s not safe to wander alone.”

She rolled her eyes.  “Again?  I thought they took care of that last night!  Ugh, fine, just don’t touch anything.”

Yuri smiled and hurried over to a stool near her desk.  He crossed her arms on the table and leaned forward to examine the head-sized red stones she was working with.  “So what’re you doing?”

“I’m trying to re-make the system that got you here, if you must know.”  She narrowed her eyes at him, “So with any luck I can reverse it and get rid of you.”

“Aw, you wouldn’t want to get rid of me, would you?”  He tilted his head and gave her puppy eyes Repede would be proud of.  

Her expression didn’t change.  “In a heartbeat.”

Yuri dropped the act.  “Admit it -  you’d miss me.”

“Like a head wound.”

Yuri’s stool scraped the ground as he scooted forward.  “So how does this work?”  It all looked sort of familiar from the day he got sent here, but he’d spent his minutes in the mage’s warehouse so panicked and scared that he never looked too closely at how everything worked.

“Well, the mages used tissue samples from a monster called an Outbreaker that lives in the Sands of Kogorh.  Luckily, we met that thing last year and Judith picked up some pieces of it after we killed it.  I remembered she had those, so I got them from her and was able to isolate the aer pattern in the blood that lets it shift time.  Of course, we have to use much less powerful mana these days, but it’s really just a matter of making the formula more powerful.  These are converted blastia,” she gestured at the stones, “they’re nowhere near as powerful as the old ones, of course, but they can manipulate mana on a small scale.  I think if I use an even more powerful version of this naturally-occurring formula, I could get the whole thing working again.  Of course, I still have no  idea how to regulate how far in the future it goes or how to make it go in reverse.”

Yuri stared at her as she spoke, absorbing about ten percent of that.  When she’d stopped talking long enough for him to realize she was done, he said, “So… you’re using old monster blood and magic rocks to make a time machine?”

It clearly pained Rita to hear her genius work boiled down so simply, but she just sighed and said, “Yeah, basically.  I’m trying to work out a relation between the formula and the exact number of hours between you disappearing in the past and arriving here.  But, since we don’t know exactly when you got here and I’ve just got Flynn’s estimate of the last time he saw you, it’s pretty blurry.”

Yuri rested his chin in his hands.  “Hmm…. maybe it’s cause the days were so similar?”

Rita narrowed her eyes.  “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, like it was super hot when I left and it was super hot when I arrived.”

Rita scoffed.  “There are plenty of hot days in a Zaphias summer.”

“Ok, but I might have shown up in the winter, right?  But instead it was the same time of year.  That might mean something.”

Rita stared at him for a long moment, her irritated face slowly softening with excitement.  “If the Outbreaker only flipped back and forth between day and night… that might mean its abilities were designed to snap to the same conditions to prevent overshoot.  But the mages used way too much power so overshoot was inevitable, so maybe it still tried to snap to the ‘right’ conditions? It shot you forward over a dozen years, and then locked in on a day with the same conditions as the one you left - temperature, humidity, moon position, atmospheric pressure.  That would make sense!”

“Would it?  ‘Cause your description makes none to me.”

“You might have stumbled onto something.  Not bad for a snot-nosed brat.”

“Hey, yeah, I’m pretty smart, huh?”

Rita gave him a flat look.  “Don’t get overconfident.”  Her annoyance with him couldn’t stifle her excitement, though.  “I’m going to need to do more research to confirm the hypothesis, though.  I need environmental data from the day you disappeared.”  She shot to her feet and started running for the door.  Halfway there, she stopped and whirled around.  “Argh, I’m supposed to babysit you, though.  You’ll have to come with me to the library.”

“To research weather stuff from years ago?”

“Yeah.”

Yuri wrinkled his nose.  “Count me out.  That sounds super boring.”

Rita stomped over to him.  “Well, you don’t have a choice.  If I’m forced to babysit you, you’re coming where I need to go.”

Yuri shrugged.  “Actually, Flynn never said you had to.  I just wanted to hang out with you, but if you’re going to go study at a library, I’ll entertain myself on my own.”

The smack she delivered to the back of his head was strong enough to make him stumble forward.  “You little brat!  Fine, go be obnoxious somewhere else.”

Rita stormed out, and then Yuri shrugged and followed a few seconds later.  He had no interest in joining her at the library, so he wandered off to find something else to do.


	10. Rules and Obligations

 

It was mid-afternoon and Yuri was so bored.  Having lunch with Flynn earlier was the highlight of his day, and even that had been rushed.  Flynn didn’t even have time to leave his desk, so they ate sandwiches together in his office.  The one-year jubilee celebration was in only two days, so he had his hands full preparing for that.  

It didn’t help that the heat was getting so powerful it even penetrated the castle walls.  It was just warm enough inside to be uncomfortable, which was warm enough to make Repede want to nap all day and regret his fur coat.  Without even a dog to play with, Yuri had started spinning around in circles and then trying to walk while dizzy just because it was something to do.  

He stood by a window on the third floor and stared out at the city.  Out there, people were going about their lives and not cooped up in a stuffy castle.  Even now, at the hottest time of the day, there was more activity out there than in here.  How long was this imprisonment going to last?  Flynn promised to take him into the city when he had time, but that could be ages!  

Surely it wouldn’t matter if he just looked around outside for a little bit.  He’d be careful and keep his head down and no one would even notice him.  He’d be back before Flynn even realized he was gone.  

Yuri made his way to the first floor.  From here, it was easy to find a window that could take him to the grounds.  Sneaking _out_ of the castle was sure to be easier than sneaking _in_.  He pried the window open, climbed onto the sill, and then hopped onto the dry grass.  See, he was already halfway there.  He just needed to scale the wall, climb over the arch that crossed the moat, and he was home free.  

He ran across the short stretch of grass to the shade of the walls.  The afternoon sun cast long shadows reaching toward the castle, which helped conceal him as well as protect him from the sun’s scorching rays.  Even on his run over here he’d felt it sear into his scalp.  

Now he just had to find a way over the wall.  He was expecting some loose stones he could get a grip on, or a conveniently placed tree.  Castles always had things like that - or at least they did in stories.  His fingers trailed along the wall as he searched, hoping to find a weak point.  

Ah-ha!  The stone here was dingier and seemed older than the last section.  This wall had probably been built earlier, and the brickwork wasn’t as slick.  There were a few places where the foot-long blocks of stone stuck out and made uneven ledges. An adult probably couldn’t hold their weight on them, but he might be small enough.  

Yuri dug his fingers into the highest one he could reach and pulled.  His shoes scrapped the wall and he pulled his feet onto the first lip of brick.  He had only a few millimeters to balance on, so before he could lose his grip he pushed himself onward and scrambled to the next stone.  

The bricks had baked in the sun all day and burned his fingers as he clung to the wall. He was determined, though, and with considerable effort he’d made it halfway up the wall.  His arms shook from the exertion and the one time he’d risked looking down to see how high he was, he’d regretted it, but freedom was so close he could taste it.  

This next step was going to be a tough one.  The nearest brick he could get a grip on was off to the right, just out of reach.  He’d have to push off from his current perch and jump a few inches to the right to grab the ledge and then find a foothold before falling.  He could see where he’d put his feet; he just needed to grab the outcrop that was less than a centimetre wide.  Yuri took a deep breath, braced himself, pushed off from his perch, and then -

“I say!  What are you doing up there?!”

The sudden shout distracted him for only a second, but it was a second too long.  his fingers scraped the wall but missed their mark, his knee banged the brick, and then he plummeted to the ground.

The grass rushed to meet him and he landed feet-first.  Something crunched in his ankle and he fell to the ground with a shriek.  Yuri lay face-first on the warm grass, breathing deep and fighting off the tears that had leapt to his eyes in time with the pain.  

“What were you doing on the wall?” a second voice asked.

Yuri pulled his head up and used his arm to rub his stupidly watering eyes.  A pair of knights loomed over him, one tall and thin and the other quite short.  “I wasn’t breaking in.”

The short one poked his shoulder with the butt of a long spear.  “No one climbs a wall if they would be allowed through the gates.  What is your purpose in the castle?”

“Nothing!”  He pushed himself up and brushed grass from his elbows.  When he pulled his legs around, his right ankle throbbed and fresh tears surged to his eyes.  Yuri hastily rubbed his face on his shoulder and clamped his mouth tight to suppress a cry.  

“Then, I say, what were you doing here?” the tall one demanded.

“I was leaving!  I’m allowed to be here - Flynn’s my uncle!”

The pair exchanged a look.  “That’s right,” the short one said, “the commandant’s nephew is staying with him.”

“But if he’s here legally, why would he have to sneak out?”

“I think the commandant will want to know about this.”

“No he won’t!” Yuri blurted.  “I mean, you don’t have to bother him.”  One hand was occupied clutching his ankle, which was already beginning to swell.  

The knights shared another look, and then the tall one nodded and grabbed Yuri under the arms.  “Commandant Flynn will want to deal with this himself, I say.”

Yuri tried to put weight on his ankle, but the sharp pain forced him to muffle a whimper.  Seeing this, the shorter knight wrapped his arm around Yuri’s shoulders and helped support him.  Making a run for it was definitely out of the question, so Yuri had no choice but to hobble between the knights and glower at the floor.  

He spent the entire trip to Flynn’s office running through excuses for why Flynn had no right to ground him again.  They included that Flynn was being entirely unfair in not letting him leave the castle, that his ankle already hurt a lot and that was punishment enough, that he hadn’t actually left the castle before being caught so no crime was really done, and that Flynn was really just a big mean jerk who needed to get his head out of his butt.  

The tall knight knocked on Flynn’s office door and Yuri scrambled to settle on the best excuse in the seconds between that and Flynn’s voice calling, “Enter.”

Flynn was still trying to finish what he was writing when they walked in, and glanced up without putting down his pen.  When he saw a pair of knights flanking a grass-stained and guilty-faced Yuri, he gave a long sigh and rested the pen on the desk.  “What did you do this time?”

Yuri started to explain, “I didn’t do-”

“We caught this child attempting to scale the castle walls, sir,” the short knight said.  

Flynn’s gaze turned to Yuri.  “Is that true?”

Yuri looked around the room and chewed his lip.  “Well…. yeah, sorta….”

“‘Sorta’?  Did you or did you not climb the wall?”

Yuri inspected the carpet threads.  “I did.”

“Why?”

Yuri shrugged his whole body.  “I wanted to play mountain climber.”

“Yuri.”

He glowered at the floor.  “I was trying to leave.”

Flynn folded his hands.  “I see.”

The tall knight straightened up and saluted.  “I say, sir, we are sorry for interrupting you, but we thought you’d want to deal with this yourself.”

“I do, thank you.  You two are excused.  Yuri,” he pointed to the chair in front of his desk, “sit.”

Before leaving, the knights helped him limp to the chair.  Flynn’s eyebrows knitted as he saw this.  “What happened to your leg?”

Yuri slumped into the chair and shrugged.  

The short knight explained, “I think it sprained or broke when he fell from the wall, sir.”

Flynn looked to Yuri, who was staring at the desk instead.  “How badly does it hurt?”

Yuri’s frown deepened.  The chance of Flynn letting him off with the injury serving as punishment was next to nothing.  The fact that he’d still been grounded even after Cumore beat him was proof enough.  “Not that much.”

“Boccos, please find Her Majesty and tell her that Yuri has hurt himself and could she please come to my office as soon as possible.”

The short knight saluted.  “Yes, sir!”

As soon as the door clicked shut, Yuri winced; here it came.

“Why were you attempting to leave the castle?” Flynn sat at his desk with his hands folded in front of him.  Someone who didn’t know him well might think he seemed quite calm, but thirteen years hadn’t changed the cold fury Yuri knew too well.  

“I just wanted to look around outside.”

“I specifically told you not to leave the castle.”

Yuri crossed his arms and raised his eyes to meet Flynn’s.  “It’s not like I was gonna be out for long.”  

“It doesn’t matter how long you were planning to be out there.  I told you to stay on the castle grounds and you disobeyed me.”

“ _Actually_ , I never left the castle.”

Flynn breathed heavily through his nose.  “You were on your way out and don’t deny it.  Just because you didn’t make it doesn’t mean you aren’t still guilty.”

“Maybe I was just going to go to the top of the wall and take a look!  But I didn’t make it ‘cause those dumb knights made me fall!”

“It isn’t their fault you got hurt doing something you weren’t supposed to do.”

Yuri balled his fists and smashed them on the desk.  “You shouldn’t have told me not to do it in the first place!”  What right did Flynn have to boss him around?  Especially how he’d worded it earlier: ‘you disobeyed me’.  Flynn wasn’t someone to be obeyed.  They were supposed to be friends!

“I told you exactly why you weren’t allowed to leave.  Do you remember?”

With his fists still planted on the table, Yuri scowled.  “Yeah.”

“And what was it?”

Yuri rolled his eyes.  “‘Cause you think I’m gonna get murdered on the street or something.”

Flynn’s hands finally left their folded position to press flat on the desk as he leaned forward.  “Because I _know_ there are people out there who mean to do you harm!  Yuri, when I tell you to do things, it’s because they will help you.”  

His voice was getting louder now and Yuri found himself leaning back in the chair.  

“You said you wanted to live with me, and that means living under my rules.”

“You can’t boss me around!”

Flynn slapped the desk, and unlike Yuri’s attempt this actually made the furniture rattle.  “Yes, I can!”

“You’re just happy ‘cause now you’re bigger than me and always get your way!  You never asked if I even wanted to go to school and you won’t let me leave the castle and you make me go to bed too early and you make me eat vegetables at dinner!  If you were really my friend we’d make decisions together like we used to.”

“I am not your friend,” Flynn snapped, while something also snapped in Yuri’s chest.

“W-what?”  But Flynn had _always_ been his friend.

“I am your guardian and that means I get to decide these things for you.”

“But you’re making rules just to prove you can!”

Flynn’s shoulders rose and fell as he took deep breaths and when he next spoke, his voice was a fraction lower.  “I make rules for you for the same reason I make rules for the Empire: to keep people safe.  When people break the Empire’s rules, I arrest them.  When you break my rules, you will likewise be punished.”

“But your rules are dumb! What’s the big deal about climbing the wall?  I wasn’t gonna hurt anyone!”

“ _You_ got hurt.”

Yuri jerked his head to the side with a roll of his eyes.  “That’s just on me, though.  I can take care of myself.”

“No, you can’t!”

“I can too!”

Flynn swept to his feet and leaned forward with his hands on the desk.  “No, you can’t, Yuri.  You think you can, but you can’t.  You are a _child_.  I remember when we were eight years old together, and I thought we could make it on our own, too.  But we couldn’t have then, and you can’t now.  You are still a child and you don’t know what you’re doing and as long as you live with me, you _will_ obey my rules.  Is that clear?”

Yuri crossed his arms and glared at the wall off to the right.

“I said, is that clear?!”

Yuri wrinkled his nose.  “Crystal.”

“After Estellise gets here, you’re going straight to your room where you will stay for the rest of the afternoon.”

Yuri grunted, “Fine.”

They were locked in heated silence for a painfully long minute until the door opened and Estellise entered.  “Flynn?”  She saw him still standing and glaring at Yuri and he slowly sank back into his chair.  “What’s going on?”

Flynn gestured across the desk.  “Yuri fell and hurt his ankle.  Could you please heal it?”

“Of course!”  Estellise rushed to him and kneeled next to him.  “Show me your foot, please, Yuri.”

Yuri twisted sideways and tenderly raised his leg.  Estellise rested it on her knee and eased the shoe off his foot.  Already it was swollen like there was a doughnut around his ankle.  Estellise held her hand over it and let the magic flow.  Yuri let out a long sigh as the pain ebbed away and the swelling went down.  

“I think it was just a sprain, but I want you to stay off your foot for the rest of the day at least, and take it easy for the next few days. Ok?”

“Just as well,” Flynn said, “he’s about to spend the rest of the day in his room.”

Estellise looked between them and could still sense the tension in the room.  “Um… what happened?  Are you guys ok?”

Yuri just crossed his arms and sulked while Flynn sighed.  “I’ll explain later.”

“Ok… well, I’ll help Yuri to his room, then.”

Estellise held his arm and led a limping Yuri through the castle to Flynn’s apartment.  When they got to his room, he threw himself on his bed and buried his face in his pillow.  

Estellise seemed about to leave, but she hesitated for a few seconds and then gently rubbed his shoulder.  “Yuri… I’m not sure what happened, but I know Flynn can be pretty strict sometimes.  But, you know he really cares about you, right?  He just wants what’s best for you.”

“Yeah,” Yuri mumbled into the pillow.  “I know.”

“Ok… well, I need to go back to work, but I hope to see you at dinner.”

* * *

 

Flynn explained the whole thing to Estellise as they walked to his apartment.  He’d gone to her office when he finished the day’s work.  It had been difficult to concentrate all afternoon with his argument with Yuri hanging in the back of his mind.

Contrary to Yuri’s beliefs, he didn’t like ordering him around.  It felt weird for him, too.  He remembered Yuri as his friend, but now he was his ward and he had a responsibility to give him the best upbringing he could.  Plus, the injury Yuri had sustained validated his choice.  Yuri had gotten hurt going off on his own, and that was without even leaving the castle.  

“I just feel bad for shouting at him.  I should have remained calm.”

“Yeah, he seemed pretty upset.”

Flynn turned to her and frowned.  “You’re not supposed to agree with me when I’m being self-deprecating.”

“Yay, you learned how to say that right!”

Flynn pouted.  “It’s not like there were many people in the lower quarter to correct me on the proper usage of ‘depreciate’ and ‘deprecate’.”  He thought about it for a moment, then added, “Actually, there aren’t many people in the lower quarter who even know what those words mean….”

Estellise giggled.  “I’m just teasing.  But I’m sorry, I know you’re trying to vent.”

“But on the other hand, I know how obstinate Yuri can be.  I had to put my foot down and make it clear to him that I’m serious about being in charge.”

“Yes, I understand.  Parenting is hard, especially when you’re thrown into it so abruptly.”

“Yeah….”  Her wording frightened him, not because she’d said something new, but because she’d reminded him of something he’d already known but not wanted to admit: he was Yuri’s parent.  He’d always avoided that word even in his own thoughts, because it was a very scary word.  Somehow, ‘legal guardian’ seemed so much less life-changing.  It was true, though.  He was all Yuri had, and Yuri needed a parent, and the person who raised him, fed him, clothed him, and disciplined him met the criteria.  He was, in practice, a father, and the mountain of responsibility that title came with was even more frightening than becoming the commandant.

“Flynn?  Is something wrong?”

His thoughts had slowed him down so she was a few steps further down the hall.  “I haven’t really thought of myself as his parent until now.  You’re right, of course.  I am his parent.  It’s just… weird to think about.”

“Are you ok with that?  Are you regretting your decision to keep him?”

Flynn shook his head.  “No.  For years I convinced myself that Yuri was just a boy from my childhood and my memories of how integral to my life he’d been were just nostalgic memories.  Having him in my life again, I’m remembering all the reasons I loved him when we were kids.  He can’t be my best friend the way we used to be, but I would be proud to have him as my son… even if calling him that terrifies me.”

They reached his apartment and as soon as the door opened, Repede burst out, barking.  Flynn abruptly stood back.  “Repede?  What’s wrong?”

Repede sniffed the floor, ran to the end of the hallway and sniffed again, then whined and ran back to Flynn and barked.  

This behaviour was far from normal, and Flynn was growing concerned.  With a sinking feeling, he looked across the room to Yuri’s closed door.  It only took him seconds to cross the room and knock on the door.  Yuri didn’t answer right away and Flynn didn’t wait any longer to enter.  

The room was empty. Damn. _Damn_.  His mind immediately leapt to Cumore and Herbert; they could have found a way back into the castle.  But, there was no sign of forced entry.

“Flynn, look.”  Estellise was at his side now and pointing at the pillow.  There was a note.

Flynn snatched it up and his eyes darted over the sloppily written and poorly spelled words with growing anger.

_Flyn-_

_Dont wory abowt me. im not kidnaped or anething. yu dont need me and i dont need yu, so i thingk we shood liv sepretly.  i wont get in yor way and ill be ok by myself.  See yu later!_

_-Yuri_

_The pap_ er crumpled in his fist.  “That stupid, irresponsible….”

“He ran away, didn’t he?”

Flynn tossed the note to her.  “Read for yourself, if you can.  He spelled his own name right, at least.”

Estellise smoothed the note between her hands and quickly read it.  “He can’t have gotten far walking with a limp.  Maybe the knights stopped him and are already escorting him back to you.”

“I hope so.  In case not, I need to inform the knights to start a search for him.”  Not sure if he was more angry or worried, Flynn stormed out of the room.  

* * *

 

Yuri strolled down the street with a smile plastered on his face.  Escaping the castle had been easier than he’d expected once he put thought into it.  He’d spent the afternoon lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, and simmering with indignation.  That fury had focused his mind to come up with a truly cunning plan.

The mistake he’d made the first time was that a person climbing a wall to get out of a place was obviously breaking some rule.  Knights didn’t have to look too closely at a wall-climber to realize they were an escapee.  The way to get out was to leave through a way normal people walked out, so the guards would have to be paying attention to realize he wasn’t supposed to leave.  And who left the castle every day that were so ignored they were practically invisible?  Servants.  

All he’d had to do was dig out the rough, patched clothes he’d been wearing when he arrived, smear some ash from the fireplace around his face, keep his head down, and join the rest of the weary masses heading home at the end of the day.  No one had even spared him a second glance, and now he was free.  

The sky was a deep blue-grey now that the sun had dipped below the horizon.  He had just reached the public quarter, and if he kept walking downhill he was sure to find the stairs to the lower quarter soon.  His foot hurt with every step, but it had gotten better from an afternoon of lying in bed and Estellise had healed the actual damage, so it only slowed him down a little bit.  He’d been out of the castle for probably about half an hour now, and hoped to reach Hanks’ house in the lower quarter after another half hour.  Hanks was sure to help him.  

He walked along a wide road lined with stalls.  The vendors would have begun packing up now during the winter, but since the sun setting meant people were finally willing to roam the streets, the evening shopping period had just begun.  

Yuri was about to turn a corner and hopefully find the stairs to the lower quarter when someone tapped his shoulder.  “Huh?” He turned around and his stomach dropped.

“There you are,” Mr. Herbert said.  “I’ve been worried sick about you.”

Yuri backed up to escape the hand on his shoulder, but Herbert switched his grip to Yuri’s upper arm.  

“Come on, now, it’s time to go home.”

“I don’t think so!”  Yuri tried to jerk his arm out of the man’s grip.  Herbert started walking, dragging Yuri along.  “Let go of me!  I’m not going with you!”

They were starting to get attention from shoppers and vendors. Yuri leaned backward and pulled to escape Herbert’s grip, cursing his sore ankle for not giving him a good foundation.  

“Now, now, stop throwing a fuss.  Your mother told you to be home an hour ago.”

“No she didn’t!”  Yuri stumbled forward as Herbert jerked.  He whipped his head around to see shoppers watching them with concern.  “Hey!  He’s not my dad!  Argh, let me go, you jerk!”

“Excuse me,” a woman with from one of the stalls strode toward them.  

Yuri could tell Herbert was getting nervous.  Good!  He hadn’t let go of Yuri’s arm, yet.  

“What’s going on here?” the woman demanded.

“I’m terribly sorry for causing a scene,” Herbert said.  “My son likes to ignore his curfew and my wife was growing worried.”

“You liar!”  Yuri twisted as they stood still in an attempt to break away.  “Lady, this guy isn’t my dad and-”

Herbert slapped his free hand over Yuri’s mouth.  “Yuri, don’t you know lies like that could get your dad in big trouble?”

The woman frowned as she glanced between them and then crouched to Yuri’s level.  She locked eyes with his and said, “Tell me the truth: do you need help?”

Yuri met her eyes and tried to impart them with all the honesty and fear he could.  He hated to admit he was scared, because the whole point of leaving the castle was to prove he could make it on his own.  But, he had no idea what Herbert wanted to do to him beyond a vague idea of science experiments and he simply wasn’t powerful enough to escape on his own.  He nodded firmly. “Please.”

The woman abruptly stood up.  “Sir, you need to let go of this child.”

“But he’s my son.”

“Liar!” Yuri kicked his shin, which really hurt his ankle but had been worth it.  

“Let’s go, Yuri,” Herbert grunted.  “We’re going home.”

The woman grabbed Yuri’s other arm.  “I don’t think so.”

The clank of armour announced the approach of a knight.  Yuri looked over with hope, but then it turned back to dread.

Cumore surveyed the scene and then asked, “What’s this disruptance all about?”

“Oh, thank goodness,” the woman said.  “Sir, this man is attempting to abduct this little boy.”

“Dear me,” Cumore drawled.  “How heinous.  Both of you will have to come with me.”  His hand landed on Yuri’s shoulder and the women released him.  Cumore made it look comforting, but Yuri felt how firmly those fingers dug into him.

“I’m not going with you!”

“Shh,” the woman said.  “Don’t worry, he’s a knight.  He’s here to help you.”

“No, he’s not!  He’s in on it!”

“Don’t be scared.  I promise the knights are the good guys, ok?”  She smiled at Cumore.  “I’m so glad you arrived, Captain.  I’ll let you handle this.”

“Oh, I should be thanking you, ma’am.”  He gave her a slithery grin.  “If a good Samaritan like you hadn’t stalled this vile abductor, there’s no telling what might have happened.  I have everything under control now, though.”

“Wonderful.  Goodnight!”

Cumore took Herbert by one arm and Yuri by the other.  Quickly and firmly, and led them both off the main street.  Once they were out of site of the crowds, Cumore grabbed Yuri and slung him over his shoulder.  

“Now then,” Cumore said, “let’s try this again.”

“Put me down.  Put me _down_!”  Despite his efforts and punching and kicking, Cumore carried him away with little trouble.  


	11. Out of Time

It had been two hours and there was no sign of Yuri in the castle.  Flynn had every knight and servant who could spare the time scouring the building for him.  The building was huge and had hundreds of places a child could hide.  With so many people searching for so long, though, Flynn had to conclude Yuri had made it out of the castle.

“I can’t believe it’s happening again.”  Flynn sat on the couch in his living room, leaning forward on his knees and gazing at the coffee table.  

Estellise rubbed his back.  “It’ll be ok.  We’ll find him.”

Flynn’s stomach was tied in knots.  “I feel like I’m eight years old again.  This is just like what happened the day he disappeared.  Everyone searching and me sitting here helplessly, gradually realizing I might never see Yuri again.”

“Don’t say that.  We’ll find him and everything will be ok.”

“It’s my fault.  I shouldn’t have yelled at him.”  

“Remember when I got kidnapped by Alexei?  I know you were really worried then, too.”  She reached down to clasp his hand.  “But you found me and everything worked out ok, didn’t it?  Just like we’ll find Yuri now.”

“I really hope so.”  He couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d ruined his second chance.  Getting Yuri back after all these years had been a miracle, and it had only taken a week to lose him again.  “I don’t know if I can do this again.  The not knowing.  The constant wondering what happened.  Convincing myself I’ll see him again one day and then feeling that hope slowly slip away.”  Flynn hung his head and ran his fingers through his hair.  “I wish he had never come back.  It’s just cruel to give me a week with him only to go through this all over again.”  

Flynn took a long breath and then jerked to his feet.  “He’s not in the castle.  We would have found him by now.  He’s out in the city and I can’t just sit here.”

“I’ll help you look.”

Flynn frowned.  “The empress can’t just wander the streets.”

Her face fell.  “Oh… well, I guess you’re right.”

“I’m sorry.”  He squeezed her shoulder.  “I appreciate your help, but you should stay here in case they find him.  If they bring him to you, give him a hug and then lock him in his room until he’s twenty-five.”

“Heh, got it.”

* * *

 

It had been an hour.  Flynn hadn’t found anything, but he honestly didn’t expect to.  It was just like when he was a kid and spent hours wandering around the lower quarter in the hope that Yuri would suddenly pop up out of nowhere.

What had he done wrong?  He’d only been Yuri’s guardian for a week and he’d already lost him.  What did that say about his parenting abilities?  This was a disaster.  He was only twenty-two; he wasn’t ready to raise a child.  He couldn’t even keep track of the kid!

On a long street of shops in the public quarter, he started asking around again.  He didn’t have a picture of Yuri, so all he could do was ask any of the vendors if they’d seen a boy matching his description.  

“...about 8 years old, around yea-high,” he held his hand around his waist, “shoulder length black hair, walking with a bit of a limp.”

“Oh!”  the woman behind the stall nodded quickly.  “Yes, I think I know who you’re talking about!”

“Thanks for your… wait, really?”  Flynn had given this description to so many shopkeepers or anyone else who might have been watching the streets for hours that he hadn’t expected to find someone that had actually seen Yuri.  He was so accustomed to apologetic shakes of the head that he wasn’t sure what to do with this information.

Thankfully, the women continued without being pressed.  “It was a few hours ago.  I remember seeing him walk by alone and wondering where his parents were, and then a minute later I heard him shouting and making a fuss.  A man claiming to be his father was trying to lead him away, but the boy insisted the man wasn’t his father and that he didn’t want to go with him.”

Flynn took a step closer to her stall, the smell of her baked goods not even registering in his excitement.  “What did the man look like?”

“He was kind of short, round, and wore glasses.  Around middle-aged, I’d say.”

Mr. Herbert.  Flynn was angry, but not surprised.  “What happened?  Did the boy leave with the man?”

“No!”  The woman smiled slightly.  “I thought the situation looked suspicious so I intervened.  The boy confirmed that he needed help and I knew for sure that the man must be some kind of predator.  Thankfully, and knight showed up then to take care of the situation.”

Flynn’s whole body relaxed.  So, Yuri was with the Knights.  He was probably sitting at a Knight outpost right now waiting for them to figure out if the boy’s story about being the Flynn’s nephew was true and worth bothering the commandant about.  “Do you know what district of the city the knight belonged to?”

The woman shook her head.  “No, sorry.  He was a captain, though.  He wore purple armour and had blue hair.”

And then Flynn’s relaxation vanished.  “I see.”

“Does that help?”

“Yes, it does.  Thank you for the information, and thank you for trying to help.  We need more citizens willing to get involved if they see something suspicious.”

“It was my pleasure to help that boy!  Have a nice night, Commandant!”

Flynn walked away, his heart fluttering.  Before he’d been afraid of never finding Yuri again but being able to hope he’d successfully run off to live alone.  But he knew Cumore and Herbert intended to harm him and he was worried sick that it had already happened.  His heart ached to think of how frightened Yuri must be and the prospect of finding him in this huge city before they could throw him into time again made him want to break down and cry.  Was he going to spend the rest of his life only seeing his friend once every thirteen years?

Estellise’s words came back to him.  He’d worried horribly about her when Alexei took her, but they’d gotten her back, hadn’t they?  They’d found her first at Baction and then at the Sword Stair, because that was where Alexei needed her for his plan.  Herbert had taken Yuri for his plan - and Cumore presumably to cash-in on any radical discoveries - so where would he need him?  Where he could do his experiment.  Flynn was on his way to the mage headquarters before he even finished the thought.  

The good thing about being the commandant was that no one ever stopped him or asked what he was doing somewhere.  When he marched into the mages’ Zaphias building after the fastest walk across the city he’d ever made, not a single person told him he was in a restricted area or that he needed permission to access the experimental labs in the back of the building.  The only person he spoke to was a young woman at the front desk, who took one look at the storm brewing behind his eyes and didn’t hesitate to answer which room number Mr. Herbert had headed to a few hours ago.

He didn’t knock.  Cumore and Herbert snapped their heads around when the door banged against the wall.  Herbert stood near a long metal counter with a stopwatch, while Cumore had his arms crossed and lounged against the wall.  The counter was covered with microscopes, a tray of surgical tools, flasks, and test tubes  One of the tubes, Flynn was furious to see, appeared to contain blood.  On the floor in the middle of the room were two large red stones identical to the reformed blastia Rita had used in her own experiments.  What he didn’t see was Yuri.

“Where is here?” Flynn demanded from the doorway.

“Get out of here.” Cumore pushed himself off from the wall.  “You’re interfering with science.”

Flynn sneered at him.  “As if you’re in it for the science.  What percentage of the profits did he promise you?”

“He’s right, though,” Herbert said.  “We’re on the cusp of a major scientific breakthrough.”

Flynn’s sword slid from its sheath.  “I didn’t ask you what you were doing.  I asked, where is he?!”  His eyes darted to the stones and to the stopwatch ticking away in Herbert’s hand.  His ribcage shrank to squeeze his entire chest.  

“Now, that’s an interesting philosophical question,” Herbert said with a glance at his watch.  “Just where are people when they’re outside of time?”

Flynn strode forward and his voice scraped out, “How could you?”  They’d done it.  They’d thrown Yuri into the portal again. He was too late.  “He was just a little boy.  He had his whole life ahead of him, and you took that from him.  For what?  For science?”

“That child was the first living being to travel through time. He ought to thank me!  Before, he was a poor orphan who’d grow up to be just another homeless nobody living on the fringe of society down in that gutter you call a neighbourhood.  But now, he’s paving the way for the greatest scientific advancement since the invention of blastia.”  He jabbed a stubby finger at Flynn.  “It’s you who’s harming him!  You want to keep him as nothing but a useless child.   _I’m_ turning him into _progress_.”

Flynn couldn’t stop himself from starting, “You are so full of…” but he remembered what uniform he was wearing and stopped himself before he became completely unprofessional. “That’s some fancy wordplay to try to turn yourself into a hero here.  However, I’m still going to arrest you on charges of abduction and,” he pointed with his sword to the test tubes and the smears of blood on the shiny countertop, “unethical experimentation.”

“You can’t!” Herbert backed away as Flynn approached.  “Please, wait just five more minutes!  You’ll see, that boy will be perfectly fine! I used the ratio of how far he travelled last time to cut back on it this time.  He was only supposed to be gone for ten minutes!  He’ll be here any second!”

Flynn glanced at the stop watch in his hand.  The minute hand crept toward the three.  “You’re five minutes over already.  How many more years of his life have you stolen?”

“Not stolen!” Herbert waved his hands while his eyes kept going to Flynn’s sword.  Flynn wasn’t going to use it on him, but he didn’t need to know that.  “The biopsies proved his tissues show no sign of unnaturally accelerated aging and there doesn’t seem to be any unhealthy stress on his body.  We haven’t taken any years from him!”

“What about the years he was supposed to spend growing up alongside me in the lower quarter?”

Herbert scoffed.  “The boy would hardly complain about that.  Who wouldn’t trade that for becoming the adopted son of the commandant and living in luxury?”

“It was his life!  The life he was supposed to live, and you took that away from him and hurled him out of his own time.  You’re under arrest for such flagrant abuse of a child.”  

Flynn reached for his handcuffs, but then a burst of light crackled near the ceiling.  Yuri dropped out of the air and crashed to the ground with a thunk.  This startled Flynn, and that gave Herbert time to zip past him and make a run for the door.  Cumore was already almost there, after spending the entire confrontation sidling toward it.  

Flynn ran after Herbert.  He only took half a second to notice that Yuri lay on the floor with his hands bound in front of him, coughing and panting.  Herbert stepped around Yuri to make it to the door, but then Yuri stuck his leg out and Herbert toppled to the ground.  Flynn was on him within seconds and yanked his arms behind his back to lock the handcuffs on.  

Cumore had already booked it into the hall.  Torn, Flynn looked to Yuri, who nodded.

“G-go,” Yuri panted, and because it was Yuri, there was still more anger on his face than fear even after all he’d been through.  “Get him!”

Flynn dashed after Cumore.  The knight was stopped by a closed door at the end of the hall, and while he fumbled with the knob, Flynn caught up with him.  Cumore whirled around and pressed himself against the door.

“N-no!” he whined.  “Don’t hurt me!  It wasn’t my fault!  I don’t kn-know anything about blastia magic!”

Flynn lowered his sword.  “I know that.”

“I didn’t even want to hurt that bra - I mean, that poor child!  Herbert is the fool who planned everything.”

“I said I know that.”  Flynn sheathed his sword and Cumore visibly relaxed.  “I’m fully aware you’re not an evil mastermind, Cumore.  You’re not smart enough for that.”

Cumore clearly wanted to argue that point, but being faced by a furious commandant stayed his tongue.

“You know what you are?  A bully.  You pick on people who are smaller or weaker than you.  You caned Yuri because you could - because he was too small to fight back.  And I think I find that even more disgusting than someone who harms others for corrupted ideals.”

“Yes, you’re right.”  Cumore clasped his hands.  “I swear to work on this problem and become a knight more worthy of the title.”

Flynn snorted.  “You’ve run out of chances, Cumore.  I caught you red-handed involved in the abduction and practically torture of a child. Maybe you can work on this in prison, which is where you’re going to be for a long time.”

“But… but, Commandant, sir, I’ve only ever loyally served-”

“Drop it.”  Flynn rolled his eyes.  “And you know?  You’re probably lucky you helped the mages steal Yuri’s life.  I’m certain that if Yuri was the same age as me, you would have run out of chances with him a long time ago.  But because he didn’t have the chance to grow up and give you his justice himself, you’re getting it from me and you’re under arrest.”

Flynn wasn’t worried about Cumore escaping.  Every knight in Zaphias would recognize him and be happy to turn him in, so his only chance would be to flee into the wilderness.  Considering Cumore considered entering the public quarter as good as going camping, that wasn’t an option for him. Instead, Flynn stepped into the main lobby just long enough to ask the woman at the desk to send for the knights to escort two felons to jail, and then rushed back to the lab room to check on Yuri.  

When he got back to the lab, Herbert lay on his stomach talking to Yuri.  “...and you’ll see it was all for the best.  You should be so proud of helping me.  I’m sure you’ll understand when you’re older.  If you just-”

“Shut up,” Flynn said.  

“But-”

“Don’t talk to him.”  Flynn stepped past the cretin and dropped to his knees in front of Yuri.

Yuri leaned against the side of the counter, eyes rimmed with red and bound hands between his folded knees.  On his right arm was a wide swath of white bandage with splotches of blood starting to show through, his face was pale as a sheet, and a few feet away was a puddle of vomit.  

Flynn snatched a scalpel from the counter and sliced through the rope around his wrists.  Next he grabbed a cloth and gently wiped Yuri’s mouth, and then gripped his shoulders.  “Are you all right?”

Yuri glanced away.  “Feel pretty crummy, but I’m ok.”

“Good.”  Flynn let out a prolonged breath to relieve the tension he’d built up since discovering Yuri missing.  Then that tension escaped through words.  “What were you thinking?!  I told you not to leave the castle on your own!  This is what I feared would happen! You could have been killed!”

Yuri’s head lowered further and his shoulders tightened beneath Flynn’s fingers.  “Sorry,” he muttered.

“Why do you have to be so reckless?  Like it or not, you’re still a child and….”  Flynn stopped when he was finally able to register Yuri’s face.  He’d never seen his friend look so small.  Flynn’s hands lowered to Yuri’s back and then pulled him against his chest in a crushing embrace.  “I was so worried about you.”

After thirty seconds of this, Yuri squirmed.  “Flynn… you’re kinda crushing me….”

Flynn let him go.  “Sorry.  How do you feel?  You’re sure you’re all right?”

Yuri shrugged.  “I feel like I got squeezed through a tube while spinning in circles but at least I didn’t pass out this time.”

“Interesting!” Herbert piped up.  “I’d hypothesize that the farther in time you travel, the greater a toll it takes on your body.”

Flynn’s head shot around.  “What did I tell you about speaking?”

Herbert’s excitement paled under Flynn’s gaze.  “R-right….”

“Actually….”  Flynn took Yuri’s wrist and gently pulled out his arm.  The bandage covered several inches just below his elbow joint.  “What did you do to him?”

“It was nothing seriously invasive,” Herbert began.  “I just needed some samples of various tissues as a control so I could check how the second round of biopsies was different after the trip through time.”

“So you just took a scalpel to his arm?  You didn’t even give him any drugs?”

“I didn’t want any additional chemicals interfering with the test results.”

Flynn stared at him for a few long seconds as he reined in his fury.  “No, I was right, go back to not speaking.  I don’t want to risk testing my patience any further.”

In a cupboard below the counter, Flynn found a first aid kit with some apple gels.  He gave these to Yuri and then said, “Does your ankle still hurt?”

Yuri nodded.

“I’ll carry you home.  Come here.”  He turned around and let Yuri climb onto his back.  Flynn piggy-backed Yuri out of the lab and down the hall.  As he reached the lobby, knights were arriving and already had Cumore in embarrassed custody.  “The other culprit is in the lab down the hall,” Flynn told them.  “I’ve already subdued him.”

“Yes, sir!” the knight saluted.  

Outside, Flynn began the walk home.  It was fully dark now and by the time they reached the royal quarter, the streets were deserted.  They walked along a tree-lined boulevard, listening to crickets chirp their pleasure for the warm night.  

“Flynn.”  Yuri’s voice broke the silence when they were a few blocks from the castle.  “I can walk.”

Flynn came to a stop.  “Are you sure?  I don’t mind.”

“Yeah.  I can walk.  Put me down.”

“As you wish.”  He crouched so Yuri could slide off his back.  Instead of starting to walk again, Yuri stared up at the lights of the castle and then slumped to the curb with a sigh.

“What’s up?”

Yuri rested his arms on his knees and stared at the cobbled road.  “I’m sorry, Flynn.  I know I shouldn’t have snuck out.  I promise I’ll do what you say from now on.”

Flynn waited a moment to see if Yuri was done, and then sat beside him.  His fingers pressed into the boulevard's warm grass.  “I’m sorry for shouting at you.”

Yuri looked up at him surprise.  

“I shouldn't have yelled, especially a few minutes ago.  But, do you know why I did?”

“‘Cause you’re a jerk.”

Flynn chuckled.  “Ok, maybe that’s part of it.  But, I yelled because I was scared.  Ever since you disappeared as a kid, I thought I would never see you again.  I was really scared that would happen again.  I would be furious at anyone who put you in danger or risked your life, even if that person was yourself.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I know.  You’re a good kid.  Just… a little more reckless than my heart can take.”

“I’m not helpless, you know.  You don’t have to always decide everything for me.”

Flynn sighed.  “Yuri, you know I love you, right?  When we were kids, you were like a brother to me.”

“Yeah.”

“But, things are different now.  Our relationship can’t be the same as used to.  I told you I wasn’t your friend anymore, and that’s sort of true.  I said you could live with me, but we’re not two friends living together.  I’m your guardian now.  I want to have fun with you, but it’s more important to take care of you.”

“But I don’t need to be taken care of.”

Flynn’s arm encircled Yuri’s shoulders.  “Maybe you’re right.  Maybe you could survive on your own.  I managed from when I was ten, after all.  But, it wasn’t really that great a life.  I’m going to give you the life the I wished I had.  I’m not going to give you away to anyone else.  I know it’s weird to think of me like this, but… I’m going to be your dad.”

“I guess… it’s not really possible to just be friends anymore, is it?  You don’t even like playing games.”

Flynn smiled a little.  “You’re mostly right.  I do like playing with you, but my enjoyment comes from seeing you happy, rather than having fun with the toys myself.”

“I think I liked you more as a brother than a dad.”

Flynn pulled him tighter against his side.  “I know.  And it’s really not fair that we didn’t get the chance to grow up that way.  But, this is what we have so let’s make the best of it.”

Yuri was quiet for a while.  He scuffed his shoes on the cobbles and fiddled with the ragged edge of his shirt.  Finally he said, “Ok.  If I had to have a dad, I would pick you.”

“And you know that means sometimes I’m going to tell you to do things you don’t want to do.”

“Yeah.”

“And I expect you to do them.  I’m not being a bossy friend; I’m being a parent.”

Yuri pouted.  “I get it.”

“But no matter what, please don’t run off again.  Cumore and Herbert are taken care of, but I was telling the truth about other people trying to hurt you to get to me.”

“Yeah.”  Yuri rubbed his still sore arm.  “I’m not letting that happen again.”

“So, are we good?”

Yuri held out his left arm.  Flynn automatically met it with his own and they shared the special highfive they’d come up with so many years ago.  “Yeah,” Yuri said.  “We’re good.”  He used Flynn’s shoulder to help himself to his feet.  “Let’s go home.”

“Ok.  But actually, I really should carry you.  Estellise said not to put stress on your ankle, and you’ve certainly done that.”

Yuri seemed to want to argue, but his foot was sore enough that he caved without a fuss.  He climbed onto Flynn’s back and rested his chin on Flynn’s shoulder.  As they walked, he tightened his arms around Flynn’s chest and said, “Hey, Flynn?  I’m hungry.  Can we have supper when we get back to the castle?”

“Of course.”

“And dessert?”

“Nope.”

“What?!”

“No dessert for a week.  That’s your punishment for sneaking out.”

Yuri pulled one arm away so he could lightly punch Flynn’s shoulder.  “I was kidnapped!  And experimented on!  And sent through a freaky vortex through time and I coulda died!”

“All good reasons why you shouldn’t have snuck out.”

“Is this what you’re gonna be like as a dad?  Punishing me for things I already got hurt doing?”

Yuri was the kind of kid who’d consider the possibility of losing a limb an exciting risk and prior injury as proof it had been an awesome adventure.  Restricting his access to cake, however, might convince him to toe the line.  “Yep.”

Yuri sighed dramatically.  “You suck.”

After a few more minutes of walking, Yuri said, “Hey… Flynn?”

“Hm?”  Flynn was enjoying the walk home.  The night was peaceful, he finally had charges he could stick Cumore with, and he had Yuri’s weight reassuringly in his arms.  After all the stress he’d gone through nearly losing him for the second time, part of him didn’t ever want to put him down again.  

“You won’t tell anyone I threw up, right?”

“Why would I?”

“It’s just… it’s not really cool, right?  And - and it wasn’t ‘cause I was scared or anything.  I just felt really sick ‘cause of the time travel.”

“I understand.”

“And maybe I was crying a little, but your body just sort of does that when things hurt a lot so it’s not like that means I was scared.”

It was lucky Yuri was on his back because he certainly wouldn’t have liked the amused expression on Flynn’s face.  “I know.”

“But… even though I wasn’t scared… thanks for saving me.”

“You don’t have to thank me. I promise I’ll always be there to pull you out of your messes.”

“‘Cause we’re family, right?”

They reached the steps of the castle and Flynn smiled as he carried Yuri into their home.  “Yeah.  That’s right.”


	12. All at Once

"Flynn!" Yuri threw the door open. "It's time to get up!"

Flynn rolled over in bed and didn't open his eyes to mumble, "Go to bed, Yuri."

Yuri dashed to the window and tugged the curtain open. Dawn sunlight pierced through Flynn, who pulled a pillow over his face. "But look! There's flags and banners and everything outside!"

"M-hm…."

"I heard music, too. We should go check it out!"

Flynn's voice could barely be heard through his pillow. "They're rehearsing for the parade today. What time is it?"

"I dunno, like six or something."

Flynn groaned. "Go to bed."

Yuri ran to the bed and lept. He bounced on the soft mattress and then crawled the rest of the way to Flynn's side. "Come oooooon." He shook Flynn's shoulder. "Get up, get up, get up."

Flynn rolled on his side and continued ignoring him.

Yuri grabbed Flynn's arm and tugged. "Come on, Flynn, please? Wake up."

After a long groan, Flynn dragged the pillow from his face and pried his eyes open. "Why is it so important to you that I get up?"

Satisfied with himself, Yuri sat back on his heels. "Because cool stuff is happening outside and I promised I wouldn't go out there on my own."

"So… you're actually waiting for me to take you out?"

Yuri folded his arms. "I promised, didn't I?" And besides… even though he'd like to deny it, the terrifying events of two nights ago still weighed heavily enough on his mind to discourage him from wandering on his own. The night they'd come home, he'd even slept in Flynn's bed again.

Flynn grimaced. "Yuri… I don't have work today. Can I please just sleep until at least eight? Please? Then we'll go out. I promise."

Yuri heaved a sigh. "But I'm hungry  _now_."

Flynn closed his eyes and rolled over. "So go make yourself some toast."

It was clear Yuri was not going to be able to wake Flynn. Sulking, Yuri crawled off the bed. He missed the old days when Flynn was free to play with him all day and wasn't busy working all the time or recovering from work.

He didn't know how to use Flynn's oven so instead he got a bowl of cereal. That done, he left the apartment to wander the castle. Today, the day of Estellise's one year jubilee, there was finally some activity to entertain him. He lurked around the kitchens watching elaborate desserts get put together until someone shooed him out and then he sat in the shade at the training grounds to watch knights. This regiment was marching in the parade today, and they were busy practicing some fancy salute that had to be done in sync.

It wasn't even ten in the morning yet and it was already uncomfortably warm. Yuri felt bad for anyone who had to wear a uniform today; they were definitely going to die. He leaned against the wall and watched the bright morning sun glisten off a sea of freshly-polished helmets. At the front, their captain was shouting commands. He didn't seem happy with their coordination. There was assorted grumbling as the soldiers went back to their starting positions. The captain shouted a command. A hundred mechanically moved to the hilts of a hundred sword. There was another shout, and then a hundred swords swung into the air to point at the clouds.

Yuri watched the knights with envy, imagining the day he, too, got to wield a sword. When he grew up, he'd join the knights and be the best swordsman they'd ever had. He'd work right beside Flynn and help him lead the Empire and everything would be perfect.

Yuri watched the knights rehearse a few more times before that got boring and he wandered back inside. He was getting used to roaming the castle, and the other residents were getting used to him, too. By now the word had spread that Commandant Flynn had adopted a child, and instead of questioning looks he got asked, "Oh, you're the commandant's boy, aren't you?" He wasn't keen on looking like he belonged in the castle, but he did feel a little flutter of pride at confirming  _his_  sorta-dad was the  _commandant_.

In his wanderings, he found his way to Rita's lab. He poked his head in and wasn't surprised to see her at her desk the morning of a celebration. He was, however, surprised to see her silently staring at a rock.

"Hey, what's up?"

Rita pulled her head up. "What do you want?"

Yuri slipped inside and shut the door. "Cool rock."

"Are you just here to bother me or do you need something?"

Yuri strolled toward her desk. "I was just going to say hello, gosh. Hey, did you ever find anything in that library trip?"

"Huh?" She was still distracted by her rock. "Oh, right, it looks like my hypothesis was correct. I was just formulating a theory this morning that you could lock onto whether patterns to choose the date. I was overthinking the mechanism for going backward in time, too. It's based on a natural system, so it's actually a pretty simple reversal of the formula."

"Uh…. sure. So what's with the rock?"

Rita frowned. "Well… just as I was writing out my new hypothesis for how to make traveling  _backward_  in time work, it fell on my desk with a note tied to it. Here." She pushed a scrap of paper across the desk. He recognized the handwriting as being the same that covered all the pages on the desk. It said, 'you've got it.'

"You wrote this yourself?"

" _A_  me did."

Yuri grabbed the rock from the table. "So you're saying this rock came from the future?!"

"Give that back." She snatched the rock back. "Yeah, it looks like a me from the future sent this message back to tell me my hypothesis is correct. So, conceivably I could send something back in time right now."

"Whoa… let's try it!" Yuri looked around the room for something to send back.

"Not so fast. I'm not sure if I want to try."

"Huh?" His eyes landed back on her. "Why not?"

"Because there was a timeline where I  _didn't_  get the rock sent back. There had to be a starting point, right? I had thought maybe it would work as a loop, but I don't think it will. I have no idea when the future me sent this back, or what prompted her… me… to do it. So, I won't be continuing a loop. There was a future where I sent a message back in time to myself, but now  _we_  are not on track to reach that future. In fact, since I now know for sure that my hypothesis is correct, I'll have it working by the end of the day instead of however long it took the other me. The future this rock came from can no longer exist."

"Oh...kay…." Yuri had no idea what she was talking about. "But, why can't the time just sort of split?" He held his hands up in a V shape. "So, there's one line where you did send the rock back and one where you didn't."

"But then there would be two rocks. When we fought the Outbreaker in the Sands of Kogorh, it pushed us forward and backward in time but there was always only one copy of us. I don't think this works by actually jumping through time but sort of… pushing through it." She waved her hands as if her vague gestures would help Yuri understand quantum mechanics. "I think there's only one timeline, and you can get moved forward or backward through it but there's always only one of you at any given time. If you go back and change something, the future gets re-written to accommodate it. That's why when we killed the Outbreaker, it didn't create a paradox of how did we get back to the normal time if the monster that sent us back was killed hours earlier. Or in your case, I wouldn't have invented time travel if you hadn't shown up now, so there would be no way for you to have gone back."

Yuri struggled to break this down. It didn't help that Rita seemed to be talking more to herself than to him, and didn't put any effort into limiting her vocabulary to words he knew. "Ok… so… what you're saying is that if you send me back in time, everything that happened in the past thirteen years goes poof and we redo it with me there?"

"Maybe." There was desperation in her voice. "Or maybe things just get subtly rewritten. All I know is that the me that I am now - the me that met you for the first time as an eight year old last week - can't possibly exist in a universe where you grew up with Flynn. So if I send you back,  _I_  would cease to exist and there would be a slightly different me that met you last year, probably."

"But that means when future you sent the rock back, she was killing a whole universe of people!"

"I don't think it's like that!" Rita waved her hands. "Everyone else just got reset a bit, and anything not directly connected to the change would just happen again. Everyone would be exactly the same. It's only that version of me that irrevocably disappeared."

Yuri frowned. It wasn't really hurting people, he guessed. The same people did the same things, but no one remembered they'd already done it. It was like looking through a flipbook and then going back and flipping through it again. The same animated pictures just replayed the same scene none the wiser that they'd done it before. But still… "They're still vanishing and coming back earlier. How can a whole world vanish just like that? There's so  _much_  of it."

Rita shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it's more fragile than we thought."

This was making his head hurt. "I bet Flynn's up by now. I'm going to go see if he's busy."

* * *

It was rare that Flynn had a whole day off, and Yuri was determined to enjoy every minute of it. Flynn didn't crawl out of bed until almost nine, but once he had gotten dressed and eaten breakfast, Yuri wasted no time in dragging him out to practice sword fighting.

Despite Yuri's begging, Flynn insisted on practicing with wooden swords. They started with basic drills, but Yuri quickly grew bored with that and they ended up having a mock fight. It mostly revolved around Yuri attacking Flynn, who easily knocked away most of his attacks, but Yuri did successfully land a few blows on Flynn's shins.

"Ow!" Flynn cried the first time that happened. He stood on one foot and massaged his shin.

"Ha!" Yuri jumped up and pumped his fist in the air. "I got you!"

Flynn had to laugh. "Good one. I'm not used to fighting people so low to the ground."

Yuri crossed his arms. "Are you calling me short?"

Flynn lowered his arm and rested it on top of Yuri's head. "Just pointing out that your head is at perfect armrest level."

Yuri jerked away and slapped Flynn's arm. "Is not!"

"Is too."

Yuri swung his sword at Flynn again, but Flynn was too fast this time and blocked it with his own.

"You can't just attack at random, Yuri. You need to consider what your opponent is expecting."

"I bet I'd learn faster with a real sword."

Flynn smiled mildly. "Well, that's a sacrifice we're going to have to make. Anyway," he sheathed his sword, "the parade is in a few hours. I need to stand at attention during it, but we can go out now and wander around for a bit if you like."

"Oh, yeah!" Thoughts of sparring fled from Yuri's mind. "Let's go check it out."

Flynn made him get changed before they went out. They were hot and sweaty from sparring outside and since they were going straight to the parade after this, he had to get dressed in his nice clothes. Yuri still found it a marvel to have his very own room with his very own closet filled with clothes tailored just for him.

Flynn was wearing his dress uniform when they met up in the main room and then set off for the streets. All the roads around the royal quarter were packed today. Even citizens from the lower quarter were welcomed to stroll along the boulevards. There were street performers showing off their juggling or magic prowess, puppet shows to lure in excited children, and so many carts selling snack food Yuri's mouth constantly watered. Flynn was obviously in a good mood, because despite the no-dessert punishment still standing after dinner, he bought Yuri cotton candy without even being begged.

"You know that's just pure sugar, right?" Flynn said as they watched a juggler throw daggers in the air.

They were too far at the back of the crowd for Yuri to have had any hope of seeing, so he clung to Flynn's back and happily ate his fluffy blue treat. "Yeah. That's why it's delicious." He licked sugar crystals from around his lips and then ripped off a piece. "Here, try it." He shoved it in Flynn's face.

Flynn turned his head away. "No, thank you." The juggler's daggers flashed as they sliced through the air.

Yuri shrugged. "More for me."

They had hot dogs for lunch, bought from a cart and eaten on the side of the road. Yuri thought Flynn looked a bit funny sitting on a curb in his full regalia as he struggled to catch dripping ketchup with a napkin. Despite his efforts, a splash of red landed on his chest. He hastily wiped it off.

"You don't see anything, right?" He pulled his shirt out and showed Yuri.

"Nah, you're fine."

Yuri had just finished his lunch when the castle bells rang. "Oh." Flynn looked up and then rose to his feet. "The parade will start in fifteen minutes. I need to oversee it from the royal platform; we should get going."

"Where should I watch it from?"

Flynn gave him a hand up. "With me, of course."

"Up on the stage with Estelle? I thought that was only for royal people and officials and stuff."

"Right, plus their immediate family. That's you."

"Oh." Somehow it still kept coming as a shock to him when he remembered that he and Flynn were officially family now. Just over a week ago, he'd never been positive when his next meal would come. Now he was standing between the commandant and the empress. He missed a lot of things about his old life, but there were enough good parts of his new one that he didn't mind staying here.

When the parade began, Yuri sat on the edge of the stage. It was a simple wooden platform erected on the side of the road with a cloth canopy to protect from the sun. There was a large cushioned chair in the middle for Estellise. Flynn, as well as a handful of other high-ranking officials, stood nearby and watched the parade with stiff, professional faces. If any of them objected to Yuri being there, they didn't say a word with Flynn around.

It was one of the most elaborate parades Yuri had ever seen. Every civil service across the Empire had representation, with banners depicting far off lands Yuri had only heard about. There were three separate marching bands and moving platforms with huge monsters made of paper and wood.

Once everyone had gone by to pay their respects to Estellise, Yuri had been told, she and Flynn would get into a carriage themselves and ride through the streets waving at people. Most incredibly of all,  _he_  would be invited into the carriage. He, Yuri Lowell, the orphan from the lower quarter who'd been passed over and abandoned his entire life, would get to ride in an ornate carriage and wave at people.

The final group before that exciting carriage ride marched into sight now. Row upon row of knights marched down the street in perfect clanking unison. Flags waved and helmets gleamed. They had to have amazing discipline to be so professional even though the heat must be smothering them.

When they drew level with the stage, they swiveled to face the onlookers. The captain leading the regiment shouted a command and a hundred hands reached for their swords. Another shout, and the swords sliced into the sky.

Yuri didn't see the archer. No one did. Yuri only registered the fact that an archer existed in some back corner of his brain that was still able to think about cause and effect. For the rest of his brain, the idea that someone must exist to have fired the arrow was inconsequential to the fact that there was now an arrow lodged in Flynn's throat.

It happened so fast. Flynn had already hit the ground by the time the first person screamed. Yuri found himself at Flynn's side, but the intervening seconds were erased from memory.

" _Flynn_!" His whole neck was covered in blood. There was just so much of it. The arrow had pierced his throat all the way through. Flynn writhed on the ground, coughing and choking as blood splattered his lips.

Yuri was vaguely aware that everything was going to chaos around him. People were screaming, knights were running, orders were being shouted. None of that mattered. For a second, Flynn's wide, panicked eyes met Yuri's and he seemed to try to say something, but it quickly turned into a moan and a gurgle that made Yuri's chest turn to lead. "F-flynn…."

He stopped moving.

"Flynn!" Yuri grabbed his arm and shook.

Estellise dropped to her knees on Flynn's other side. It had taken her this long to get here? Or had it really been so few seconds?

"Come on… come on, Flynn, Estelle's here." His face shot up. "What are you waiting for?! Heal him!"

"I…" Estellise stared at him with glassy eyes. Her hands hovered over the wound but nothing happened. "It… it's too late."

"No it's not! Hurry up!"

Her head dropped and her hands landed on Flynn's chest. "Even if I restarted," she closed her eyes and spoke in a whisper, "He would just die again immediately and suffer even more."

"No!" He hated the way his voice squeaked. Why was he so small and powerless? "He's not…. Flynn!" Yuri shook him and Flynn's head flopped to the side. Still-warm blood oozed between Yuri's fingers. "Wake up, Flynn. Stop it! Stop this right now! Get up!"

"Yuri…." Someone's hand was on his shoulder. It didn't matter whose.

Yuri's breaths came so hard and fast he struggled to breathe. Part of him noticed that every word escaped his mouth as a sob, while another part furiously declared there was no reason for this to be so because Flynn  _could not be dead_. He gasped for air as tears dripped off his chin. "Come on, Flynn. Please wake up."

"Yuri, it's time to go." The hands returned again, around his waist this time. They pulled and he finally looked back to see that it was Judith. When had she gotten here? It didn't matter.

"No!" He flailed to fight her off as she pulled him into a crushing hug. "Somebody just  _heal_  him already!"

Rita had arrived, too, and kneeled next to Estellise with her arms around her. Estellise took a few deep breaths and mumbled, "I can't, Yuri. I… I can't. It was too fast. I couldn't…."

"But he promised!" Yuri shrieked, still fighting to get away from Judith. "He promised he wouldn't leave! He  _promised_!" He kicked and broke away from Judith. Before she could stop him, he fell back at Flynn's side and clutched the front of Flynn's shirt. "You have to get up, Flynn. You  _h-have_  to. Please get up…  _please_ …."

* * *

It was later. Yuri sat cross-legged on the cold marble floor. He was the only person in the audience chamber. Well… the only living person.

Flynn lay on a marble slab beneath the vaulted ceiling. Someone had dressed him in a non-bloodstained uniform and pulled the collar up to cover the puncture wound in his throat. His hands lay on his chest, clutching his sword. He could have been sleeping.

The afternoon had dragged like molasses. There had been a general consensus among Flynn's friends that Yuri shouldn't be left alone, but none of them quite knew what to do with him, so he ended up spending it sitting in his room with Karol in the living room. Considering how much of his afternoon had been spent curled up in bed, clutching his stuffed wolf, and sobbing until he felt empty and drained, he was glad Karol had given him some privacy.

He was only faintly aware of what else had happened that afternoon. The assassin had been caught, he'd heard. He was some radical supporter of Alexei who thought Flynn had taken the commandant position by force. Yuri couldn't bring himself to care. Catching the guy responsible didn't make any of this better. He hadn't seen Estellise since Judith dragged him away from the parade, but Karol said she was holding it together well and was busy maintaining order.

Flynn would be lying in state for the rest of tomorrow, they said. There were a lot of people who wanted to show their respects and say goodbye. Yuri didn't care about any of that, though. The chamber wasn't open to the public yet, but no one had stopped him from wandering in here as the sun yet.

None of this made sense. Last week, he and Flynn had been children together. This morning, Flynn had been his beloved father. And now, Flynn was a body on a slab. How could so much happen so fast? There had been no warning. One second everything was perfect, and the next nothing was. Yuri was still half-convinced this was all a nightmare and any moment he'd wake up.

Please let him wake up. Please let him squeeze his eyes tight and then wake up in a dark room with the sound of Flynn snoring next door. The whole scenario played out in his head with vivid colour. He'd run to Flynn's room and crawl into his bed, where he'd curl up next to him. Flynn would pry his eyes open and mumble a question about whether Yuri was ok, because he was exhausted from his busy job but still putting as much effort as he could into making sure Yuri was ok, because that was the kind of person Flynn was.

Only, Flynn wasn't like that anymore because he wasn't here at all. And he'd never sleepily make room on his bed so Yuri could feel safe, and he'd never let Yuri sleep huddled against him even on broiling nights, and he'd never order cinnamon rolls for breakfast when he knew Yuri'd had a rough night. He would never sit on the floor to play knights with him, or teach him how to fight with a sword, or argue about silly things, or tell him about the world, or any of the thousands of things they were supposed to do together now that they were family.

And the weight of everything Yuri had wanted to do with Flynn rose up from his heart to bring a fresh wave of tears to his eyes. He wanted this to be a dream so badly it hurt and every couple minutes the gutwrenching realization that Flynn really was gone for good hit him anew.

This bust of tears didn't last long. He'd already cried so much today his stomach hurt, so there wasn't much left. He pulled the collar of his shirt up to rub his face, not even caring about smearing snot on the expensive shirt. He was glad he'd pulled himself together when he had, because he had just let the shirt fall when a door opened and footsteps approached him.

Yuri didn't bother looking up, but a moment later Estellise sank to the floor beside him. Her skirt pooled around her feet and he heard the faintest of wavering breaths, which he recognized from his own ventures of halting tears when he looked at the body on the slab. She must be better at controlling herself, though, because when she wrapped her arm around his shoulders, it was steady.

"They told me you were in here."

Yuri grunted.

"Um… are you… doing ok?"

Yuri finally looked at her. He didn't need to say anything to get across how very much not ok he was, and she didn't have to say anything either to show him that she was barely holding it together.

She nodded slowly. "Me, too."

Yuri looked back to Flynn. He almost wished the blood was still there so it would be easier to believe he wouldn't wake up any second now. He could handle an obviously dead body, he thought, but this illusion of peaceful sleeping was cruel. "It's just… where did he go?"

"Hm?"

He'd been thinking about this all day, when he could. His thoughts were a jumbled mess that kept bouncing between crushing grief and indignant confusion. Maybe he could deal with this if they made  _sense_ , but they didn't. "There's just… just so  _much_  in a person. They're thoughts and dreams and pasts and futures and hopes and fears and love and - and they're just so many things." He scrubbed his eyes again, just in case. "It's like there's a whole world inside every person, and it's so big and complicated. There's a whole  _life_  in there. And now… Flynn's gone. Everything he was is just… just poof. But it has to go somewhere, right? All of that can't just vanish!" He slapped his knees. "So where did it all go?! Where is Flynn now?! He has to be  _somewhere_! Everything that Fynn is - or, or was - can't just disappear like a candle. He has to go somewhere." His voice rose to practically a screech. "So where is he?!"

Estellise's breath wavered and her grip around his shoulders tightened. "I don't know, Yuri. Nobody does. Some people think they go to a better place."

"And why did he have to go in the first place?!" Yuri scrubbed his eyes of the tears that had suddenly welled up again. "What was the point? Everything was perfect and now he's gone. What was the  _point_  in him dying?"

"Well, there… there isn't one. Sometimes these things just happen."

"But that's stupid! People can die just like that? Who set up the universe like this!?"

"I don't know, Yuri."

"Why don't you?!" He didn't want to scream at Estellise. He wasn't mad at her, but all this emotion had to get out of him somehow and Estellise was the unlucky target. "You're a grown-up. You're supposed to know things. I b-bet Flynn would know."

If she was hurt by his angry words, she didn't show it. Instead, she scooted around so she could pull him close to her chest and hold him tightly.

"I just don't get it." He'd thought he had used up all the tears his body held, but fresh ones managed to squeeze out now. "Flynn was so much. This morning he taught me about swords and he bought me cotton candy and he whined about getting up too early. He was smart and brave and kind and funny and strong, but now he's none of that. He's just a body in a room and he's  _never_  going to do any of those things again and it doesn't make sense that so much life can disappear in a second."

Estellise squeezed him tight. "I know…. I know."

"Because he can't really be gone. It wouldn't make sense. Because Flynn always keeps his word and he  _promised_  he would always be here for me, but now he's gone and I-" he sniffled and rubbed his eyes, "I'm alone again."

Estellise's hands rubbed circles on his back. "You're not. You can stay with me. You'll always have a home in the castle - I promise."

Yuri leaned into her hug. "But what good is a promise if even Flynn broke his?"

* * *

It was later still. Estellise had walked him back to Flynn's apartment. Well… the commandant's apartment. She said he would have to move in with her now, because a new commandant would be appointed and need the space. Yuri didn't want to leave the first room he'd ever had for himself, and even Estellise had been unable to leave. She was sleeping in Flynn's bed tonight.

Yuri couldn't sleep. Rather, he didn't even want to try. Today was a day that had included a living Flynn, and tomorrow would be the first of a future of days without him. Yuri would much rather stay here, in a day where he could at least think that he hugged Flynn this morning, than in those scary empty days of tomorrow. The clock ticked toward midnight as he slipped out of the apartment. Repede looked up as he left, but the dog had been lying in grieving silence all day and didn't make a sound to stop him.

The castle had never felt so empty. In fact, the whole world had never been this desolate. There had been a handful of people he had considered essential to his life, and one by one, they dropped away. All of the Scifos were dead now. Wasn't that just his luck? The one family that embraced him and gave him a home all died early deaths.

What did he have left in this world? Estellise? Flynn's friends? He barely knew them. He knew Estellise wouldn't kick him out, and she was very nice, but he'd only known her for a week and she had so many responsibilities running the Empire that he knew better than to expect her to step in as a mom. Was he going to spend the rest of his life known as the Empress' orphan ward? This future was so different from the place he'd left behind and without Flynn, he didn't have a home in it.

Yuri didn't have a destination in mind, but when he arrived at Rita's lab, he knew it was where he had meant to go. It didn't surprise him to see a light beneath the door and he wordlessly entered.

Rita's sullen face rose when he arrived. "Oh. Hey."

"I can't sleep," he said in way of an explanation.

She shrugged. "Yeah, me neither." She pushed a stool toward him with her foot. "I won't tell Estellise you're up this late."

He climbed onto the stool and folded his arms on the metal work table. "I hate this."

Rita heaved a sigh. "Yeah. It's so…." She growled in frustration and then punched her desk. "Why wasn't he more careful? He told me he'd gotten death threats. He should have paid them more attention.  _I_  should have paid them more attention."

"I don't think it's your fault."

"Well, I certainly didn't help. Ugh! And now Estellise is devastated. I mean, Flynn was my friend, but I didn't know him nearly as well as she did. He meant the world to her and now she's heartbroken and I'll never get a chance to get to know him as well and…  _ugh_."

"Estelle says I can stay here." He rested his chin in his folded arms. "But like… everywhere I go I'm just going to think about him. And how he's not here. But I don't have anywhere else to go either. I just…." He buried his face in his arms and mumbled "I just want him back."

"I want to see Estellise smile again. If we could only change…." She trailed off and met Yuri's eyes as he pulled them from his arms.

At the same time, the idea that had bubbled in the background all afternoon and finally led him here took form. "We have to bring him back."

"We need him. Estellise needs him. The Empire needs him."

"I want to go home. Send me back."

Rita got to her feet. "But, I don't think I can. There's already a you that exists this morning. If I send you back… I have no idea how that will work and it might be dangerous."

"That's ok. I don't want to go back to this morning. I want to go  _home_."

"All the way back?"

"If I'm going back anyway, let's do this right. How can I protect Flynn now? I'm just… I'm just a little kid." An image of how easily Cumore had overpowered him came to mind. "How can I protect Flynn if I can't even protect myself? I need to get stronger."

Rita nodded slowly. "You know… I think you're the only person I'd feel at all comfortable with sending backward. You're the only one who has a hole in the past to fit into."

"Yeah." Because he didn't belong here. He was meant to live thirteen years ago, with Flynn, and maybe if the timeline was corrected, this horrible day would never happen.

It didn't take long for her to set up the device. She already had most of the pieces sitting out from earlier. Yuri watched in hopeful silence as the prospect of fixing this awful present filled him. Finally, he had a way to wake up from this nightmare.

"Are you sure?" Rita said when the blastia were buzzing with energy.

The crackling light sent a tremor through his stomach as he recalled the last two times he'd seen it. Both times he'd been terrified and trying to escape before being shoved through it. This time, running into the light was his chance to escape. He nodded. "I have to try. I have to fix this."

"Ok. Then, here." She handed him a package wrapped in paper and bound with string. "These are all my research notes and a letter for myself. When you go back, all this stuff I studied is going to get wiped out. And, if I meet you in normal time, I probably won't ever start studying it. So, hold onto this for me. Give it to me when you think it's a good time."

"What if I don't meet you this time?"

"You're going back about thirteen years. So just remember, in twelve years, in mid-spring, Estellise is going to sneak out of the castle and try to find Flynn. See if you can find her and go with her. You'll be an adult by then; I bet she could use your help."

"Got it." Yuri took the bundle and held it tightly.

"Yuri… you have to make this right. By sending you back, I'm sort of… well, it's like killing this version of myself. There's going to be a slightly different me from now on. And I'm ok with that if it means saving Flynn and making Estellise happy again. I'm trusting you on this, ok?"

He nodded once. "I won't let you down. I'm going to protect Flynn."

"Good. Then…" she held her hand toward the light. "Everything is set up. Good luck."

"Thanks, Rita. See you in twelve years." Yuri steeled himself, clutched the package to his chest, and ran into the light.


	13. Thirteen Years Before

Yuri woke up when someone shook his shoulder. "Young man? Young man, are you all right?"

Yuri cracked his eyes open. In the bleary light of dawn, he made out a gentleman's face. "Uh… huh?" He rubbed his eyes and sat up. Birds chirped overhead. They were on a stretch of road near the castle, and the sky was pale blue. The last thing he remembered was being at the parade, and then -

The memory hit him with the force of an arrow. Red splattered through his mind and he struggled to breathe as the shock, horror, and grief hit him all over again.

"Young man?" The person in front of him was an older man in a fine suit. Probably a resident of the royal quarter. He crouched with a concerned look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"F-flynn," Yuri breathed and tears welled up in his eyes. He didn't know where he was or how long had passed, but he knew Flynn had… Flynn was…. Maybe he'd been in so much grief, his mind wiped out the whole memory of the afternoon, although that didn't explain why he was outside now.

"Who?"

"Flynn!" How dare this man not even know who Flynn is?! No, who Flynn  _was_. Yuri's stomach twisted in knots as he struggled to work the past tense into his vocabulary. "The c-c-commandant!" It couldn't have been more than a day. People couldn't forget him that fast. Yuri didn't want anybody to  _ever_  forget him.

"The commandant? You mean Alexei?"

Now it was Yuri's turn to look confused. "No,  _Flynn_. Alexei is…." There was a bright light in the sky, he noticed. Yuri's eyes locked onto the glowing rings of the barrier. "Wait… is Alexei the commandant?"

The man nodded. "Yes. He has been for some time."

He was back. The blastia were still here and Alexei was the commandant. He had returned to his own time.

With this information, he tried to piece together his memory. He knew he'd seen Flynn die, and now he was back, so obviously he had run away from the future. A lump under his leg came to his attention and he picked up a package wrapped in brown paper. That's right, Rita! She'd given this to him before sending him back. These anchors helped his memory spiral outward and catch the rest of the missing pieces. Before Rita, he'd been at home with Estellise, and before that they'd sat in the audience hall with Flynn, and before that he'd cried in his room with Karol….

"Are you all right? Where are you parents?"

That question caused another throb of pain to rush through his chest. His dad was dead. Except, he wasn't. Thirteen years away - more than a lifetime from now - Flynn was gone, but  _here_  there was a perfectly alive Flynn waiting for him in the lower quarter.

Yuri jumped to his feet. "Sorry, mister! Thanks for waking me up but I gotta go home!"

"Pardon?"

Yuri had already rushed away before he could even think about answering him. Flynn was like a magnet pulling Yuri through the city at lightning speeds. It was lucky hardly anyone was on the street this early, because he would have charged through them without a thought.

In what seemed like no time at all, he'd made it to the lower quarter. The sky was bright blue by the time he ran into the Scifo house. "Hello? Flynn?!"

For a moment, he feared Flynn wouldn't be there. The horror of watching Flynn die was still emblazoned in his mind and it seemed as if Flynn could have been ripped out of all times. After all, it couldn't be this simple, right? To just jump through a magic portal and get back his lost friend?

And then he heard a door open and the patter of feet. Flynn appeared in the kitchen, bleary-eyed and wearing pyjamas. "...Yuri?"

"Flynn!" Yuri dropped his package on the table and dashed across the room. Flynn grunted as Yuri crashed into him and tackled him into a hug so ferocious it knocked them to the ground.

There were more footsteps and then Mrs. Scifo's voice said, "Yuri? Oh, thank heavens! I was worried sick about you."

"Yuri, get off." Flynn tried to wriggle out of Yuri's embrace.

Yuri finally let go, but he couldn't keep the grin off his face as he stared at Flynn. It was really him. Flynn was here, he was  _alive_ , and they were the same age again. He had never been so happy to just watch someone take a breath. "Sorry. I'm really happy to see you."

Flynn sat up and then shoved Yuri. "You're one to talk! Where were you!? I looked for you all night!"

"Flynn's right." Mrs. Scifo knelt so she could hug him as well. "Half the lower quarter was out looking for you last night. We were all quite concerned."

"Sorry." He hadn't even thought about that and raced to come up with a cover story. "I found a really good hiding spot. I waited for hours for Flynn to find me, but he never did and I guess I fell asleep. I woke up this morning and realized I'd been out all night."

"And where did you get such lovely clothing?" She ran her hands over his shirt.

"Oh. Uh… a rich guy was throwing them out because they weren't nice enough, I guess. I thought they'd fit me so I nicked them."

It wasn't the best story, but Mrs. Scifo didn't see any reason to question his clothing so didn't press the issue. "Well, Yuri, you gave all of us quite the fright last night."

"I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to."

"It's all right. It's still quite early, though. Why don't you boys go lie down for a bit and I'll get something for breakfast started?"

They nodded and hurried off to Flynn's room. After the wonderful room older-Flynn had prepared for him at the castle, the tiny room with a mattress on the floor wasn't much, but it was home. Besides, that room was in a castle that no longer held a Flynn, so it wasn't a place he wanted to live in any way.

"Flynn." Yuri shut the door behind him. "I've gotta tell you something. Last night, I wasn't really sleeping in a hiding place."

"Oh, yeah?" Flynn sat on their bed. "Where did you go?"

"Well, I went to check out the mages like you told me not to. And it turns out they were experimenting with time travel! But while I was checking it out, this evil knight caught me and the mages decided to use  _me_  as a test subject. So they threw me into this crazy portal of flashing lights." He waved his arms around and tried to simulate the sound of rushing energy. "So I came out in the future and I met up with you."

"Really?" Flynn crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "So, what was I like?"

"You were the commandant! Because it turns out Alexei was evil and there was this giant space octopus thing that came out of the sky and you and Estelle and some other people fought it and since you were such a good knight they made you commandant. Oh yeah, Estelle is Princess Estellise right now, but in the future she's the empress and you're dating her."

"So… I'm the commandant of the knights and I'm dating the empress and I fought off a giant space octopus?"

Yuri bobbed his head.

"You sure have an imagination."

Yuri dropped his arms. "I'm not imagining this!"

"Ok, Yuri. Tell me more about this future where I fought a giant octopus."

Yuri waved his hand. "You're getting caught up on the octopus. I didn't even see it, and it was called the Addy… Adego...Aphagoose… something. But I really did see you as the commandant. I was there for a whole week and a half and you were super rich and you let me live with you in the castle."

"Uh-huh. If it was so great, why did you come back?"

"Because…." He stared at Flynn. For a moment, he imagined a shaft of wood lodged in his throat, blood pouring out of the wound, the chilling gurgle of him choking on his own blood, and the terror in his eyes for the brief seconds he still had consciousness before it was snatched away in an instant. Yuri had to pull his eyes away from Flynn. "It wasn't that great," he muttered.

Flynn snorted. "Sure, Yuri. Sounds like you had quite the adventure."

"It really happened!" He stuck out his arm and showed the raised red line of the scar Herbert had inflicted. "I got this when the evil mages were experimenting on me."

"Isn't that from when you fell off a fence last week?"

"What? No."

"Yeah, you said you banged your arm."

"I didn't have this yesterday!"

Flynn shrugged. "I didn't really look close at your arm, but that definitely looks a week old at least."

"That's 'cause Estelle has magical healing powers and she closed the cut."

"Sure."

"But… but it really did happen."

Mrs. Scifo knocked and then stepped in. "Pancakes are almost ready, boys."

Flynn jumped to his feed. "Yay! Thanks, Mom."

Flynn ran out while Yuri stood still and stared at the floor. He could show Flynn Rita's letter and notes, but what would that prove? A bunch of research that neither of them could understand claiming it made time travel possible wasn't evidence that he'd done it.

Maybe it didn't matter. The important thing was that he had Flynn back, safe and sound, and if Flynn didn't believe he'd had an adventure, then whatever. Flynn didn't need to know that just over a dozen years from now, he'd be the noble and respected head of the entire Knighthood. Yuri didn't need to worry about that, either. For now, they were children together, and could concentrate on simply growing up.

For the rest of the day, Yuri and Flynn played on the streets. Yuri took pleasure in playing with a Flynn who got as invested in their games of make-believe as he did. Grown-up Flynn was fun, but knowing someone was only playing for  _his_  sake rather than really seeing the invisible marauders themselves just wasn't the same.

Yuri spent the entire day laughing and grinning every time he looked at Flynn. The same thing happened the next day. Every time he laughed at one of Flynn's jokes or felt his warmth and strength when they wrestled, the memories of Flynn dying before his eyes grew a little cloudier. Yuri missed being able to spend the hot summer days in the cool hallways of the castle, but panting and sweating with Flynn at his side was worth giving all that up and then some.

They never talked about the night Yuri disappeared. Yuri didn't bring up his trip to the future again, and it didn't take long before they'd fallen right back into their old pattern and it might as well not have happened. There was only one big change, which happened a few days after Yuri returned.

Yuri had slashed at Flynn with a stick and Flynn decided this was a good time for a dramatic death. He dropped his own stick and clutched his chest.

"Arrgh! I'm hit!" He fell to his knees and then flopped to the dry grass with a prolonged moan. "This is the end… goodbye world…."

Yuri stood motionless as he watched Flynn. They'd both done this dozens of times before, because death scenes were great fun to act out. This time, though, he wasn't seeing Flynn rolling on the grass. He saw a much larger Flynn collapsed on a stage with blood gushing from his neck. He could feel the thick, warm liquid covering his hands and subconsciously rubbed his fingers together as he remembered how long he'd had to wash them to get the feeling off.

His stick-sword fell to the grass. "I don't want to play this game anymore."

"Huh?" Flynn paused mid-convulsion and sat up. "Why not?"

"I just don't! This game is dumb. Let's play pirates instead."

Flynn sat up and dusted dry stems of grass off his shirt. "Sure, ok. You can be the evil pirate and we'll have a battle!"

Yuri shook his head. "Let's be on the same team and look for buried treasure."

"Ok, but who're we going to fight?"

Yuri stomped his foot. "We don't have to fight anyone!"

Flynn frowned. "Well, that's no fun."

"We can fight, but let's not kill each other."

"But that's the best part! What's the fun of a sword fight if you can't fall down and die?"

"It's not fun! I don't like killing."

Flynn folded his arms. "It's just a game."

It was… but also it wasn't. When someone died, an entire universe of thoughts and love and future vanished in an instant. When older-Flynn had gone away, he'd left a gaping hole in the world. Rita had said even bad guys were people, and every time someone died, it had to be just as devastating to someone. Dying was huge and scary and horrible and confusing. How could something like that be a game?

"I just… I don't like it. Let's not do it anymore, ok? Killing isn't fun and it isn't a game."

Flynn clearly didn't understand. When his dad had died, it had been so far away. The only practical effect at the time was that letters stopped coming. Flynn had been devastated when he found out, but he hadn't actually seen the way an entire life could be everything one second and nothing the next. Even though he didn't understand, he could tell that Yuri was serious, so he shrugged and said, "Ok. We don't have to if it bothers you. So, where should we dig for treasure?"

Yuri smiled. "Let's try that tree near the old blacksmith! I bet there are some old metal coins buried around there."

* * *

In time, the heated days faded into crispy autumn. A week in the future seemed lifetimes away when Yuri was crunching dry leaves beneath his feet or trying to trip Flynn into a puddle after a storm. The farther he got, the more the memories took on the fuzzy quality of a dream. He  _had_  dined with the empress, hadn't he? He remembered it… although it really did seem impossible. The only things that remained clear were the red of Flynn's blood and the sharpness of grief, but maybe that was just a nightmare.

Autumn gave way to winter, which brought snowball fights and snow angels. And then it was spring and the smell of fresh pollen filled every corner of the lower quarter. Summer came again when the sun seared his face on the year's first superheated day, it was the first time Yuri had thought about his trip to the future in weeks.

Time kept passing. When they were ten years old, Flynn's mother fell ill. Words trickled out of his blurred memories. " _...my mother passed away a long time ago…. She got sick. It was a few years after you disappeared..."_

He sat on the floor outside Mrs. Scifo's bedroom, listening to her console Flynn and assure him she was going to recover just fine. Yuri felt sick and he had never been more desperate to be wrong about something.

Yuri tried so hard to fix things. He scrounged money to try to afford a doctor, he had Hanks teach him how to make soup so he could bring it to her when she was hungry, he changed the damp cloth on her forehead whenever it warmed up from her fever. But in the end, none of it made a difference. Mrs. Scifo passed away, and once again a whole world of existence vanished like an extinguished flame. He couldn't save Mrs. Scifo… so what was he going to do for Flynn? If that part of his memories came true to, what could he possibly do to prevent it?

He and Flynn sat side by side in the cemetery. There had been a handful of other attendees, but they had left now so the boys were alone.

"Why did it have to happen?" Flynn mumbled while clutching his knees. "It doesn't make sense. She was perfectly fine, and then she got sick just like that.  _Why_?"

"I don't know." Yuri had his arm around Flynn and stared sullenly at the freshly turned earth. "I don't think anyone does."

"It's not fair. I - I already lost my dad… what am I supposed to do now?"

Yuri thought about that battered package hidden under his clothes in his drawer. An elaborate scenario ran through his mind where they found a mage and gave them the information and got time travel working so they could go back in time and save Flynn's mom. But, he hadn't been able to do anything about it this time, so how would he be able to fix it next time? Besides, the Zaphias mages were scary. The only person he'd trust was Rita, but she was only four years old right now.

"I think… we just have to keep living."

"It just doesn't make sense. Why did it happen? There was no reason!"

Yuri hugged Flynn even tighter. "I don't think death has a reason. I think it just happens, and it can happen to anyone at any time. That's why it's so important to treasure people while you can."

"You're not going to leave me, too, are you?"

Yuri shook his head. "Never. We're all we have; we have to stick together."

Flynn sniffled. "Yeah."

* * *

So they grew up, side by side like they were supposed to. When the time came, Yuri followed Flynn into the Knights. That was when Repede entered their lives, and Yuri's heart nearly stopped the first time he saw him.  _Repede_ , a cunningly smart dog with blue fur. Memories swam to the forefront of his mind, chief among them the image of a great blue dog snarling and tackling Cumore to save Yuri. How could he have made that up? Even the name was right. Yuri clutched the scar on his arm and couldn't help smiling: it had been real.

"What are you so happy about?" Flynn asked from the floor as he tried to move his hands out of reach of the puppy's mouth.

Yuri looked down at his friend. If it was real, it meant that in a few short years, Flynn would be commandant. In the time he'd been in the Knights, Yuri had already grown frustrated. He'd spent many a night lying awake and wondering if he'd made the right choice and if there was any point in trying to fix the Knighthood from within. This changed everything, though. The prospect of trying to change the entire system over the course of decades of service would have been overwhelming, except he was  _certain_  that in just a few short years, Alexei would be overthrown and Flynn would take over. They really  _would_  fix things, and all he had to do was stick around and support Flynn for a few years to make sure he made it to the top.

Flynn rose through the ranks quickly. Yuri didn't, but he wasn't really trying to. Flynn made sure Yuri was always in the same brigade as him, and Yuri did everything he could to grease the wheels for Flynn from below. Every time he felt like he was wasting his life - which happened frequently after he got stationed at the castle and spent his days standing guard over nobles he hated - he reminded himself that he just had to hold out for a few more years.

And then one evening in early spring, Yuri heard a shout while he was on duty.

"I can't go back now!"

"This is for your own good, Miss, you know that," a knight said.

Yuri stopped his patrol down the hall. He'd seen Estellise around before, of course. He'd never had any reason to talk to her, but seeing her again had been one more little confirmation that he hadn't simply been a kid with an overactive imagination. They'd never met in this timeline, but Yuri always put a little extra effort in guarding when she was around.

Yuri snuck away from his post and down the hall to see what the commotion was all about.

"I have to warn Flynn!" Estellise was shouting now.

A flame of excitement lit in Yuri's heart. He'd heard this story before, twelve years ago, and this was how it began.

It was easy to kick those knights' butts. When Yuri finished, he turned to see Estellise staring at him. "Sorry to interrupt," he said with a small smile. He pulled off his helmet and shook his hair out.

"You're Yuri, aren't you?"

"Hm? That's right."

"Flynn pointed you out to me. He said you were a good friend of his. He said I could trust you."

Yuri put his hand on his hip and shook his head. "That guy needs to mind his own business."

"Why did you help me? Aren't those guys your allies?"

Yuri shrugged. "I don't ally myself with anyone who picks on young ladies. You're trying to get to Flynn, right?"

She nodded quickly. "That's right. I really need to talk to him. I'm just trying to get to his room."

"Flynn left a few days ago, actually. Some knight pilgrimage thing."

"What?" Her face fell. "Oh, no, now I'll never find him!"

"I think he was headed north, up toward Capua Nor. I can help you find him, if you want."

"Really? But won't you get in trouble? You can't just walk out on your job, can you?"

Yuri waved his hand. "Eh, it's not that important." After all, this was where it began. This quick trip to find Flynn would turn into a world-spanning adventure, and by the end of it Flynn would be commandant. At that point, either Yuri would have no need to stay in the Knights or Flynn would easily pardon is desertion.

"Well… if you're sure."

Yuri couldn't see his skin through his shirt sleeve, but his eye went to his scar anyway. It was right to help Estellise out; he owed her a favour.

If he'd had any lingering doubts that what he'd seen in the future was true, setting off on their journey eliminated them. It was conceivable that as a child he'd seen a picture of the princess before and worked her into his fantasy, but where would he have met Karol before? Karol hadn't even been born yet when Yuri went to the future, but when they met in the Quoi Woods, he was exactly like Yuri remembered him. When they reached Aspio, Yuri had to stop himself from asking Rita if she'd ever thought about time travel. He still had that package to give her, but he'd left it at home. Well, he could hand it over after they were done with the journey.

If his friends thought it suspicious that he was uncannily good at guessing where they ought to go next, they didn't mention it. He just had good hearing, he'd explained, when he alone realized Ioder was on the ship and went back for him. They'd wondered about why he never showed much support for Alexei, but after his deeds came to light they assumed Yuri was just good at reading people.

And in the end, everything worked out. In fact, Yuri thought things were even better than he remembered. He'd seen the relief on Estelle's face when Ioder became emperor instead of her, and helping Karol start a guild of their own seemed way more fun than working for Altosk. Flynn became commandant, just as Yuri always knew he would, and Yuri officially resigned from the Knights just before they left for Zaude so he could focus on his guild. When they all went to celebrate in Zaphias after the Adephagos was finally destroyed, Yuri looked up at the empty sky he'd seen in his youth. It was nice to have such concrete confirmation he wasn't crazy.

* * *

More than a year had passed since their journey ended. The summer sun blazed over Zaphias, but everyone was too caught up in festivities to worry about it. Yuri leaned against a wall with his arms crossed, staring at the crowds.

"There you are." Flynn emerged from a throng of people. "Aren't you boiling in that get up?"

Yuri tugged his dark shirt open to reveal even more of his chest. He'd abandoned the vest he tended to wear in cooler months, but he wasn't willing to admit that a black shirt with rolled up sleeves was uncomfortable. "I could say the same of you." His eyes darted over Flynn's dress uniform. For a second, he imagined it covered in blood and then quickly pushed that thought from his mind.

"I don't have a choice." Flynn tugged at the collar of his shirt. "I know I'd be in a t-shirt if I could. You're crazy."

"Sometimes we have to sacrifice for style. Not that you'd know about that." Yuri pushed off from the wall. "Want to wander around? I heard there's a juggler throwing daggers."

Flynn did most of the talking as they wandered through the streets. It had been one year since Ioder's coronation, and the whole city was out to celebrate the year of stability and progress that had followed. The whole of Zaphias was in a good mood, except for Yuri.

"What's with you today?" Flynn asked while they stood on a curb and watched a juggler. "You seem pretty morose for a man at a street festival."

Yuri's fingers rubbed on his palms. He had a lot of experience with blood and violence under his belt, but he'd always remember that he had been eight years old the day he learned how sticky blood was, and how hard it was to wash off. "I'm just having a bit of deja vu today."

"Well, put a smile on before we meet up with Estellise. You know how much she worries."

"Will do. And would you start calling her Estelle, already? You're dating the girl."

Flynn smiled a little and shrugged. "She's always been Estellise to me. Besides, her full name is pretty."

"You'll find countless excuses to justify being a stick in the mud. Hey, look," he nodded toward a child with a stick of cotton candy bigger than her head. "That looks delicious. Buy me some."

"You're fully capable of buying your own cotton candy, Yuri. Besides, you know it's basically pure sugar, right?"

Yuri couldn't help staring at the disappearing child with a tight face and a tighter heart. "Yeah," he mumbled. "That's why it's delicious."

When the bells tolled to announce the imminent beginning of the parade, Yuri's stomach sank. He'd never been less keen to watch a parade in his life.

"I need to get going," Flynn said. "I'm watching it with Estellise on the royal platform."

"Mind if I go with you?"

"Sorry, Yuri. It's for government officials only. You should go find your friends and watch it with them."

"Yeah, ok."

"See you later." Flynn smiled and walked away into the crowd.

Instead of looking for Karol or Judith, Yuri stood still for a long moment. It was possible it wouldn't happen this time, right? Things had changed. Ioder was the emperor now. Except, the assassin's problem had been with Flynn, not Estelle, and Flynn's rise to power had been nearly exactly the same. Yuri wished he'd paid more attention as a child, but he'd been so distraught he didn't even know which building the arrow had come from.

Yuri wandered through the crowds toward the covered stage where Flynn and Estelle stood to watch the parade. It had already begun by the time Yuri arrived, and the area around the stage was so packed Yuri could only see glimpses of it around people's heads. He saw a small boy being piggybacked by his dad, munching on cotton candy and waving a tiny flag. Yuri felt a pang and turned his eyes back to the buildings across the street.

The assassin had to be in one of those, but which? He couldn't just tell Flynn to dispatch knights to search every floor of every building based on nothing but a hunch. He stood through the whole parade, tense as a piano wire. When he heard the stomping feet of the regiment of knights approaching, his heart hammered harder than their drums. He couldn't fail now; this was the whole point of going back. Rita had entrusted him to save Flynn, and he had never found a good time to give her the package so if he messed up now, he had no third chance.

The knights halted before the stage and swivelled to face them. Yuri pushed onlookers out of the way to get closer. He heard the captain shout and saw the knights move out of the corner of his eye.

"You can't enter," a knight not in the parade said as Yuri shoved his way to the steps to the stage. "Imperial officials on-"

Yuri punched him in the face and he staggered away clutching his nose. Spectators nearby looked back with shock while Yuri sprinted up the wooden steps.

Flynn turned and frowned. "Yuri?"

The captain gave another shout, and the swords sliced into the sky.

Yuri threw himself at Flynn. They slammed onto the floor and he felt the rush of something moving past his neck. Someone screamed and Flynn shouted in indignation. Yuri pinned him to the floor and shielded him with his body.

"On the fourth floor!" someone shouted.

Yuri was vaguely aware of knights moving and dragging Estelle and Ioder into cover. Chaos was erupting all around him, but Yuri could focus only on one thing: Flynn beneath him, breathing heavily but warm and whole.

"You can get off me now," Flynn said.

Yuri looked across the street. Knights were storming one of the buildings and if things went as they had last time, he trusted the assassin would be caught. Slowly, he eased himself off of Flynn. "You all right?"

Flynn sat up and straightened his uniform. "Thanks to you." He looked to the side and saw the shaft of an arrow sticking out of a post right behind where he'd been standing. Flynn let out a long breath. "That was close."

Yuri's whole body still tingled with adrenaline. "Tell me about it."

* * *

It was later. Yuri sat cross-legged on the soft mattress. He and Flynn were the only people in the bedroom.

"Everything taken care of?" Yuri asked when Flynn fell backward on the bed.

"So it appears." Flynn had spent the entire afternoon regaining order. The would-be assassin had been apprehended, the citizens had been calmed, Ioder had been briefed, and finally he could relax. He lifted his head. "I didn't get a chance to properly thank you. If you hadn't tackled me at just that moment…." He trailed off with a grimace.

"Yeah, well, you'd do the same for me."

"If I could. That was amazing timing. You knew, didn't you? You couldn't have intervened fast enough if you had just spotted the archer, and it would explain why you were in such a grumpy mood all morning."

Yuri considered denying it, but Flynn would never believe Yuri had been  _that_  lucky. "Yeah, I knew."

Flynn dragged himself upright. "Why didn't you tell me? I'm thankful you saved me, but some advance notice could have prevented you from needing to."

"You wouldn't have believed me."

Flynn frowned. "Why would you say that? You know I trust you."

"I tried telling you before, and you didn't believe me that."

"Huh? When was this?"

Yuri watched his face for a moment. Flynn hadn't believed Yuri's tale of time travel when he was an impressionable child; why should he now? But, Yuri had a bit more evidence this time around. "Do you remember when we were about eight and I disappeared over night?"

Flynn nodded. "Sure. You had everyone worried."

"Do you remember the story I told you after I came back?"

Flynn frowned and tried to recall. "I don't know, Yuri, you had a lot of wild stories as a kid. Let me think, this one was about…." His eyes slowly widened. "Time travel."

Yuri just nodded.

"So… you weren't pulling that one out of your ass, then?"

Yuri punched his shoulder. "I'll have you know, most of my stories were at least partially true."

"So, you came to today?"

"This past week, yeah."

"And in that timeline… I didn't make it, did I?"

Yuri's eyes turned downcast. It had been thirteen years ago and in a different time, but that memory still gave him chills.

"When you were eight years old, you came to the future and watched me get murdered."

"That about sums it up."

Flynn sat in thought. Yui could only guess what thoughts occupied him, but he assumed Flynn was running through all the shifts in Yuri's attitude toward killing and death and how they lined up with that night he disappeared. "Actually, that explains a lot. I always wondered why you stuck with the Knights for so long. You knew I was going to be the commandant soon.'"

"Yep."

"So you knew everything. The Adephagos, Estellise, Alexei… my mom."

Yuri nodded. "I'm sorry, Flynn. I really tried to save her."

"Thank you. I know there was nothing you could have done different."

"But maybe I could have. Time travel worked once, didn't. You died, and I went back to save you. I've always wondered if I should have tried to do that again."

"Hm…" Flynn thought for a long time and when he spoke, his words came slow and carefully. "I think… we shouldn't mess with time. I already feel weird about this. I'm supposed to be dead, but I'm not. I don't think it's healthy to consistently try to rewrite the past."

"I think I know what you mean. Where would we stop?"

"Right. We shouldn't try to change the past, or we'll spend our whole lives living the same days over and over, trying to make them perfect. Instead, we should look to the future and fix the things that haven't happened yet, so that we no longer feel the need to change the past."

"Yeah. We'll keep moving forward. Although, I don't regret changing today."

Flynn smiled grimly. "Me, neither, though for obviously selfish reasons. But you were returning to your own time, not going back to muddle around, so I think it's excusable."

"I can live with that. Plus, I like this version of today so much better."

"Yeah. Me, too."

* * *

It was later still. Yuri stood in his bathroom and looked into the mirror over the sink. Aging was a funny process; you didn't notice it happening until you looked back. He'd thought he was so grown up when he was eight, but now his arguments about being fully capable of looking after himself seemed childish. No wonder Flynn had shot him down.

He looked into his eyes - adult eyes now. All things considered, he liked being a grown up. He couldn't deny that he'd felt a small surge of vengeance when he watched Cumore cower before him back at Mantaic. Being a kid sucked - you were powerless and stupid. The last time he'd lived this day, every aspect of his life had been taken care of by Flynn. It was all take and no give, and he'd been powerless to do anything but watch as that support was ripped away from him. He was glad that he had a chance for a do-over of the worst day of his life, and glad that on his second chance he was old and strong enough to fix things.

Things  _were_  better this time around. Estelle spent most of her time working on her book and visiting Rita in Halure when she wasn't cozied up with Flynn in the castle. Ioder sat on the throne, Raven had been re-accepted into their group and Karol had never been more confident as the boss of his own guild. It gave him a little thrill to think that so much was different purely because he had been present. There was no guilt about changing that past, because Yuri had always been supposed to be there. The future he and Brave Vesperia carved was the proper one. Going back in time had merely set the timeline right.

But then there was Flynn. If Yuri had never visited the future, he would have spent today goofing off with Flynn and then watching the parade with Karol and Judith. He would have watched the official stage from afar and not reached it until long after Flynn was dead.

They'd made the choice to eliminate all the blastia in the world. Now, he'd made the choice to change history and keep Flynn alive and serving as commandant. What right did he have change the course of history and affect every living creature in the world? It was one thing for the blastia, because if they hadn't done that, there would have been countless deaths. Now, it had been a purely selfish decision to save his best friend.

No one person should have the power to change the course of time. What if someone like Alexei had access to power like this and was able to keep going back over and over until Zaude worked out for him? And even though he'd justified it as simply redoing things rather than erasing entire lifetimes, what if they were wrong? What if there  _was_  a universe out there where Estelle had watched the love of her life die before her eyes and then Yuri had vanished that night?

If Rita got this working again, there was no telling when something would happen that would push him to change things again. Yuri didn't trust anyone in the world to wield this power responsibly, and that included himself. There were some things in the universe that simply shouldn't be meddled with.

With that in mind, he struck a match and tossed it in the sink. The old, dry paper package he'd held onto for thirteen years quickly went up in flames.

Karol's voice called from the street. "Yuri! Hey, Yuri!"

Yuri walked to his window and looked down. Karol and Repede stood on the road by the entrance to the Comet, waving.

"Hey, Yuri, they're gonna set off fireworks up in the public quarter. You should come!"

Yuri smiled. "I'll be there in a second, boss!" He turned back to his bathroom and scooped the ashes into a trash can. He didn't need to let his thoughts linger on the future or the past. He had the present, which contained the best friends a man could hope for, and that was more than enough for him.


End file.
